The water level in a major reservoir in northern Taiwan stabilized yesterday after welcome rainfall following steady declines in the water level the previous week, the Water Resources Agency (WRA) said.
As of 6pm yesterday, Shihmen Reservoir’s (石門水庫) water level was 217.25m, or about 20.13 percent of its capacity, down only marginally from a level of 217.31m, or 20.23 percent of its capacity, on Sunday at 11pm, the WRA said.
The reservoir lost about half a percentage point of its capacity daily over the past week amid the nation’s worst drought in over a decade.
Photo: CNA
As the rainfall yesterday was limited to low-lying areas rather than over the Shihmen Reservoir, ground-based cloud-seeding techniques were employed at 11:40am to give nature a helping hand, causing precipitation in the water catchment area about 20 minutes later.
Capitalizing on cloudy conditions, the WRA also carried out artificial rainmaking operations at four additional reservoirs in Hsinchu and Miaoli in an effort to increase rainfall in those areas by between 10 and 15 percent.
The four reservoirs — Baoshan Reservoir No. 2 (寶二水庫) in Hsinchu County and Yongheshan (永和山), Liyutan (鯉魚潭水庫) and Mingte (明德水庫) reservoirs in Miaoli County — are all down to below 30 percent of their capacity.
Mingteh Reservoir station master Hsieh Tzu-ping (謝子平) said the reservoir was at its driest since 1993.
“Unless the rain continues to fall, the relief Monday’s rain provided will be very limited,” Hsieh said.
The WRA said the rainfall added 1.27 million cubic meters of water to the three Miaoli reservoirs and the Tehchi Reservoir (德基水庫) in Taichung from midnight on Sunday to 3pm yesterday.
However, the added water was insufficient to relieve the severe water shortage in those areas, the WRA said.
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