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."
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS