The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced that it was easing water restrictions in several regions, thanks to rainfall over the past few days.
The water supply alert level has been downgraded from “orange” to “yellow” for Taoyuan and Hsinchu and Miaoli counties, and from “orange” to “green” for Tainan and Chiayi County, the ministry said.
Only Taichung remains under “orange” alert, with round-the-clock decreased water pressure, it said.
Photo: Chen Hsien-i, Taipei Times
A combination of water management measures and considerable plum rains and tropical showers has seen reservoirs significantly replenished across the nation, Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said.
Just weeks ago water levels at local reservoirs were below 10 percent, as the nation faced the worst drought in a generation.
However, the turnaround has been quick, with the water level at the Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫) in Taoyuan rising from a low of 9 percent to 55 percent, the ministry said.
Hsinchu’s Baoshan Reservoir (寶山水庫) and Baoshan Second Reservoir (寶二水庫), which serve the Hsinchu Science Park, also saw water levels rise from 3 percent to 77 percent, while the Nanhua Reservoir (南化水庫) increased from 8 percent to 100 percent, it said.
“We expect another wave of plum rain this week to fully replenish the Hushan Reservoir (湖山水庫), Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) and the two Baoshan reservoirs,” Wang said. “However, Taichung’s Liyutan Reservoir (鯉魚潭水庫) and the Techi Reservoir (德基水庫) are still lower than ideal at 47 percent and 26 percent respectively, meaning we have to keep Taichung under ‘orange’ alert for now.”
The drought had ruined the first-season rice crop for most farmers due to a lack of irrigation.
The Water Resources Agency is working with the Council of Agriculture to expedite irrigation for the second-season rice crop “wherever possible” and plans to prioritize using water from ponds, rivers and other sources to begin limited irrigation, agency Deputy Director-General Wang Yi-feng (王藝峰) said.
Limited irrigation is to start in some areas in the nation’s “rice granary,” such as the Chianan Plain (嘉南平原), as well as some areas in Taoyuan and Miaoli and Hsinchu counties.
More regions will hopefully be included on a rolling basis as rains continue to fall and reservoirs continue to fill, he said.
However, as the plum rain this week might cause short, intense rainfall, he said the agency’s most urgent mission has changed from fighting drought to fighting potential flooding, adding that 1,528 mobile pumps are on standby in case of floods.
“After the challenge of the drought of the century, we will continue to work to make Taiwan’s water supply more resilient going forward,” he said. “This includes more emergency wells, desalination plants and other mid to long-range projects.”
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day