Academia Sinica scientists on Tuesday said that increased atmospheric pressure in Southeast Asia due to climate change has caused fewer typhoons to make landfall in Taiwan, resulting in less rainfall.
Water shortages in the nation tend to be cyclical, occurring about every five years, but the research indicates that they might happen more frequently.
Taiwan has 51 reservoirs, but officials are looking at wastewater reclamation and have made progress with desalination plants — particularly in Penghu County, where most of the water supply comes from desalination.
However, a few hurdles must be overcome before alternative methods can be reliably adopted for Taiwan proper.
There are the issues of cost and infrastructure. Formosa Plastics Group has said that its desalination plants can provide about 12.49 megaliters of water per day. That might seem like a lot, but Taipei alone needs at least 908 megaliters of water per day to meet the needs of industry and the public.
The obvious solution might be to build more plants, but local water prices have been frozen for nearly two decades — Taiwan has lower water prices than any other developed country — and new desalination plants would operate at a loss.
There is also the problem of leakage, which Taiwan Water Corp (Taiwater) has reported to be as high as 27 percent. Taiwater has the goal of reducing that to less than 15 percent by next year, but leakage levels cost operators tens of thousands of US dollars per day. Improving infrastructure will be costly and time-consuming.
There is the issue of the energy used in the desalination process, which is estimated to be 2.6 to 3.4 kilowatt-hours per kiloliter. Taiwan is struggling to meet its power needs and building several desalination plants in each coastal population center would push a stressed power grid beyond its limits.
There is the issue of seawater collection, which fishers have said affects their livelihood. Subsurface collection is possible, but even more costly.
Reclaimed wastewater is another alternative, but the public could take some convincing to warm up to the idea of drinking treated sewage water — even though 40 percent of the drinking water in Singapore is reclaimed. Industry would also need convincing to accept the higher cost of reclaimed water.
Solving Taiwan’s water woes requires a multi-tier approach. Power generation and utility costs — water and electricity — will need to increase.
More power could be generated by activating nuclear power plants or installing wind farms, geothermal plants and liquefied natural gas sites — this would be to the consternation of those concerned with the welfare of coral and birds.
The government must seriously address the problem of water leakage, as it is pointless to produce potable water when it cannot be properly stored and distributed.
The authorities, after analyzing the benefits and costs of water desalination and reclamation, would likely construct a network incorporating both. The government might want to subsidize the replacement of pipes in older buildings nationwide, as well as inefficient faucets and shower heads — similar to programs that subsidize the replacement of older home appliances with energy-efficient units.
Local politics are highly polarized and partisan. Whichever party pushes through water and power generation reforms will likely open itself up to attack from the opposition, but it must be accomplished for the needs of industry and the public.
The government must aggressively resolve water and power issues, before it is too late.
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