More than 5 million residents in Taipei City, Taipei County and Taoyuan County had their water cut off yesterday, the Cabinet's Drought Disaster Relief Center (DDRC, 中央災害應變中心) said.
Despite the recent rain, the DDRC decided to carry out a 36-hour water rationing scheme in all of Taoyuan County and 10 townships in Taipei County which receive water from the Shihmen Reservoir (
The water supply will be restored at noon today.
PHOTO: YU HSIU-HUA, TAIPEI TIMES
The catchment area of the Shihmen Reservoir in Taoyuan County received 28mm of rainfall from midnight Wednesday to early Thursday morning. The reservoir's water level now stands 198.38m, still around four meters away from its "dead storage" level, below which water must be pumped out of the reservoir.
Taipei City yesterday started its second cycle of water rationing. Water was cut off to District 1, which includes Ta-an, Chungcheng, Tatong, Wanhua, Chungshan districts and parts of Sungshan, from 4am yesterday to 4am today.
Today, District 2, which includes Shihlin, Tamsui, Peitou and Yangmingshan, will lose water. There are five districts in Taipei's water rationing scheme.
According to the Bureau of Taipei Feitsui Reservoir Administration (台北翡翠水庫管理局) under the Taipei City Government, the catchment area of the reservoir has received 40mm of rainfall since Wednesday, a lot less than expected. The reservoir's water level stood at 126.33m at 8am yesterday, enough to provide water for another 30 days, according to the bureau. The reservoir's "dead storage" level is 110m.
The Taipei Water Department (台北市自來水事業處) yesterday said that the city government was considering implementing a new rationing plan which will cut off water supplies to residents every three days instead of every five. The department said the schedule and districts for the new plan would be finalized tomorrow.
However, Taipei Deputy Mayor Ou Chin-der (
"If the dam's catchment area receives more than 350mm of rainfall before the end of May, there will be no need to cut off water supplies," he said. "If the rainfall reaches 150mm before June, the water reserves in the Feitsui Reservoir will be enough to last until the end of September if we maintain our current plan to cut off water supplies every five days."
Meanwhile, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Ma said that the city government had never wasted any water from the reservoir.
"The reservoir was designed to supply water to Taipei City and electricity generation at the same time," he said. "We have never changed the policy to take advantage of the reservoir and the policy was made when Lee was the mayor decades ago."
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