The supply of irrigation water to farmland in some areas in Taoyuan is to be suspended during the spring harvest due to a water shortage, a division of the Central Emergency Operation Center announced on Tuesday.
The division, which focuses on measures to tackle shortages, said following a meeting that although the water level at the Shimen Reservoir (石門水庫), which supplies Taoyuan as well as New Taipei City’s Linkou (林口), Banciao (板橋) and Sinjhuang (新莊) districts, has risen slightly in the past few weeks, it is still insufficient to fully satisfy water demand.
The division has therefore suspended irrigation to about 28,000 hectares of farmland in Taoyuan’s zones 1 and 2, Water Resources Agency Director-General Lai Chien-hsin (賴建信) said.
Photo: CNA
Irrigation in Zone 3, which covers 7,147 hectares of farmland, would resume on Feb. 21, Lai said.
Asked whether the reservoir has sufficient reserves to maintain a stable water supply for the public following the resumption of irrigation in Zone 3, Lai said that the reservoir should be able to maintain a stable water supply until May.
Last year was the first time since 1964 in which Taiwan did not experience a typhoon during the wet season from May to October, the agency said, linking the phenomenon to climate change.
The nation is under the influence of La Nina phenomenon, which might lead to insufficient rainfall during the first harvest season from next month to June, Lai said, citing a Central Weather Bureau forecast.
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