Timely plum rains have significantly alleviated a historic water shortage in Taiwan, allowing water restriction measures to be lifted in some areas, while the hardest-hit areas remain on alert, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said yesterday.
“Thanks to Tropical Storm Choi-Wan, the sustained plum rains and continued water resource management efforts, the water situation in Taiwan has been greatly alleviated,” Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美華) told an online news conference.
More than 100mm of rain has fallen in the catchment areas of the reservoirs in Miaoli and Taichung counties over the past few days, Water Resources Agency data showed.
Photo: Wu Chun-feng, Taipei Times
Before the seasonal plum rains arrived late last month, Taiwan had gone almost a year without significant rainfall in the catchment areas of reservoirs.
Early this year, the nation turned to alternate sources of water, such as an emergency desalination plant in Hsinchu County and a pipeline between Taoyuan and Hsinchu, as well as emergency wells and other unconventional sources of water, to ensure industrial production continues unhindered.
Still, some areas in central Taiwan were placed under “red alert,” meaning that households and businesses received water only five days a week.
Nantou County and Kaohsiung, which were on “yellow alert,” or reduced water pressure overnight, are now back to normal, the ministry said.
Southern Changhua County and Yunlin County are on “green alert,” the lowest level of warning with no water restrictions, it said.
“Green alert” industrial users are required to reduce daily water consumption by 5 percent, it added.
Taoyuan, Tainan and Taichung, as well as Hsinchu, Miaoli, Chiayi counties and northern Changhua County, remain on “orange alert,” with water pressure reduced overnight and daily water restrictions for large users, the ministry said.
Large industrial users in these areas have to reduce daily water consumption by 7 percent, while non-industrial large users, such as car washes, need to reduce consumption by 10 percent, it said.
The water shortage was exacerbated by silt buildup in the nation’s reservoirs, reducing their overall usable capacity, the Water Resources Agency said.
The government has made maximum use of the low water levels to clear more than 10 million cubic meters of silt from reservoirs, the largest volume removed in the past few years, the agency said.
The latest rains raised the levels in many reservoirs, but did not fill all of them, meaning Taiwan is not out of the woods, it said.
With the possibility of more stormy weather, the agency is simultaneously preparing for drought relief and flood relief, it added.
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
‘MAKE OR BREAK’: Nvidia shares remain down more than 9 percent, but investors are hoping CEO Jensen Huang’s speech can stave off fears that the sales boom is peaking Shares in Nvidia Corp’s Taiwanese suppliers mostly closed higher yesterday on hopes that the US artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer would showcase next-generation technologies at its annual AI conference slated to open later in the day. The GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in California is to feature developers, engineers, researchers, inventors and information technology professionals, and would focus on AI, computer graphics, data science, machine learning and autonomous machines. The event comes at a make-or-break moment for the firm, as it heads into the next few quarters, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech today seen as having the ability to
The battle for artificial intelligence supremacy hinges on microchips, but the semiconductor sector that produces them has a dirty secret: It is a major source of chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems. Global chip sales surged more than 19 percent to about US$628 billion last year, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, which forecasts double-digit growth again this year. That is adding urgency to reducing the effects of “forever chemicals” — which are also used to make firefighting foam, nonstick pans, raincoats and other everyday items — as are regulators in the US and Europe who are beginning to
NEXT GENERATION: The company also showcased automated machines, including a nursing robot called Nurabot, which is to enter service at a Taichung hospital this year Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) expects server revenue to exceed its iPhone revenue within two years, with the possibility of achieving this goal as early as this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said on Tuesday at Nvidia Corp’s annual technology conference in San Jose, California. AI would be the primary focus this year for the company, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), as rapidly advancing AI applications are driving up demand for AI servers, Liu said. The production and shipment of Nvidia’s GB200 chips and the anticipated launch of GB300 chips in the second half of the year would propel
RSS