The Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫), which supplies water to Taoyuan and the western part of New Taipei City, saw a record-low water level yesterday amid Taiwan’s worst water shortage in 10 years.
The reservoir currently holds about 45.9 million tonnes of water, only one-quarter of its total capacity, according to the Water Resources Agency.
If there is no increase in rainfall in the coming days, areas served by the reservoir might face a dire situation, as Shihmen supplies an average of 1.59 million tonnes of water each day, the agency said.
If, as predicted by the Central Weather Bureau, there is no significant precipitation in the near future, as many as 1.51 million households in the areas would be affected, the agency said.
A lack of rain would mean that third-phase water rationing would be launched before May to cut the water supply to entire areas on a rotating basis, the agency said.
In Taiwan, first-phase water rationing entails reduced water pressure at night, while the second phase means the water supply is restricted for consumers who usually use more than 1,000m3 per month.
The western part of New Taipei City, as well as Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung began second-phase water rationing on Feb. 26.
As of Friday, the water level of the reservoir was the second-lowest since it went into operation in 1964, an agency official said.
Sediment removal work upstream of Shihmen Reservoir has been carried out in the hope of retaining more water when it rains.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.