The irrigation of 19,000 hectares of farmland in Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli has been suspended and the land now lies fallow. In the south, Mudan Reservoir (牡丹水庫) in Pingtung County’s Mudan Township (牡丹) released water in preparation for the onslaught of Typhoon Atsani, although only at 10m3 per second.
Seeing precious fresh water disappear into the sea highlights how different the hydrological conditions can be across even a small geographical area like Taiwan, and the importance of having water resources staff ever ready to address shortages as well as flood prevention.
Taiwan receives abundant rainfall, but as the Water Resources Agency’s annual report shows, measures have to be taken almost every year to prevent shortages. Rainfall across the nation is uneven, and when there is less rain, artificial rain, increased irrigation, water allocation and other measures are implemented.
In severe cases, relief wells are opened, irrigation is suspended and land is left fallow. This year, desalination measures have also been adopted.
Why does all this happen? One factor — in addition to the uneven distribution of rainfall — is that there is not enough space to accumulate water in this small country. These geographical restrictions mean that reservoir volumes are simply insufficient.
The effective capacity at the nation’s biggest reservoir — Zengwen Reservoir (曾文水庫), in Chiayi County and Tainan — is about 508 million cubic meters. Taiwan’s tallest dam — the 180m tall Deji Reservoir (德基水庫) in Taichung — can only hold about 187 million cubic meters.
The total capacity of all 95 reservoirs across Taiwan is less than 2 billion cubic meters, but last year total water supplied to agriculture, daily necessities and industry exceeded 7.04 billion cubic meters. This gives an idea of the pressure on the nation’s reservoirs.
All these values are averages. Including Jiji Weir (集集堰) in Nantou County, Shigang Dam (石岡壩) in Taichung and other such weirs — small storage volumes, large supply volumes, mainly used to raise water levels to facilitate water use — is not entirely fair.
As irrigation has been suspended in the Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli areas, I analyzed supply and effective capacity ratios — water utilization rates — for first-class reservoirs in these areas last year.
The utilization rate at Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫) in Taoyuan’s Dasi District (大溪) was 3.4; in Hsinchu County’s Baoshan Township (寶山) the rate at Baoshan Reservoir (寶山水庫) and Baoshan Second Reservoir (寶二水庫) was 6.78 and 2.4 respectively; at Yongheshan Reservoir (永和山) in Miaoli County’s Sanwan Township (三灣鄉), 2.0; at Mingde Reservoir (明德水庫) in Miaoli County’s Touwu Township (頭屋), 2.59; and at Liyutan (鯉魚潭) in Miaoli County’s Sanyi Township (三義), 2.7.
Even if Shihmen Reservoir is full, that would only guarantee water supply for the next three-and-a-half months. This is an average, and the period would be even shorter during a drought, as water use would go up. If follow-up measures are insufficient, that could lead to shortages.
Of the 18 first-class reservoirs, only Sinshan Reservoir (新山水庫) in Keelung’s Anle District (安樂) and Feicuei Reservoir (翡翠水庫) in New Taipei City’s Shihding District (石碇) had a utilization rate of less than 1 last year.
Increasing water storage capacity is fundamental to addressing drought: If the nation’s reservoirs could have the same capacity as those in other countries, so that a reservoir at capacity would last several years, there would be no need to worry about droughts.
The problem is that it has become difficult to build new reservoirs and artificial lakes, and this makes it even more important to dredge existing reservoirs. Although current dredging cannot match sedimentation, dredging at reservoirs with a high utilization rate should be given priority.
For example, dredging at Shihmen Reservoir so far this year has removed 2.6 million cubic meters of sediment. Multiplied by the utilization rate, that means it can supply an additional nearly 9 million tonnes of water next year.
Increasing water resources comes at a price. Developing subsurface water, increasing rainwater harvesting, improving detention pond water management, recycling wastewater, reducing tap water and irrigation canal water waste are all ways of fighting shortages that should be implemented, although they all carry a price tag.
At the Kaoping Great Lake (高屏大湖) project in Kaohsiung’s Meinong District (美濃區) — a lowland reservoir similar to Chengcing Lake (澄清湖) in the city’s Niaosong District (鳥松) — the cost is land resources.
We must not reject the construction of reservoirs and artificial lakes — fighting water shortages requires a multipronged approach.
Chang Yen-ming is a former director of the Water Resources Agency.
Translated by Perry Svensson
KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) recent visit to Beijing and her upcoming visit to Washington will serve as a high-level test of her diplomatic mettle. In Beijing, Cheng was received with symbolic gestures, a warm reception, and high-level access. In Washington, she will receive far less pomp and far sharper questions about the KMT’s vision for the future of Taiwan. Her challenge will be to persuade Washington that the KMT’s engagement with China can coexist with strong deterrence. Cheng’s April 7-12 visit to mainland China coincided with an intense period of conflict in Iran. Despite the strategic significance of Cheng’s trip,
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent the vast Asian chemicals industry into a tailspin. Deprived of the likes of Qatari natural gas and Saudi Arabian oil, the region’s fertilizer and plastics plants are slowing production or even shutting down. Everywhere except China, that is. In petrochemicals, China is unique. As well as a traditional industry that uses oil and gas as feedstock, it has parallel output that relies on its abundant domestic coal. Unsurprisingly, India and other regional powers want to copy and paste the Chinese method. This would not be easy — or climate friendly. The
History might remember 2026, not 2022, as the year artificial intelligence (AI) truly changed everything. ChatGPT’s launch was a product moment. What is happening now is an anthropological moment: AI is no longer merely answering questions. It is now taking initiative and learning from others to get things done, behaving less like software and more like a colleague. The economic consequence is the rise of the one-person company — a structure anticipated in the 2024 book The Choices Amid Great Changes, which I coauthored. The real target of AI is not labor. It is hierarchy. When AI sharply reduces the cost
US President Donald Trump recently repeated his claim that “Taiwan stole America’s chip industry,” reigniting public debate on the issue. As a former Taiwanese minister of economic affairs and an entrepreneur deeply involved in semiconductor supply chain development, I feel a responsibility to clarify this misunderstanding. From the perspective of global industrial evolution and the economic principle of comparative advantage, such a statement appears overly simplistic and risks obscuring the essence of the issue. The rise of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry was not built on “replacing America,” but rather emerged as a result of countries pursuing different development paths within the
RSS