A water shortage in Taiwan has worsened, necessitating further restrictions, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
“While we have had a little rain over the Lunar New Year break, it did not help substantively with water reserves,” Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) told a news conference in Taipei. “We are facing an even more serious situation.”
Twenty to 40mm of rain fell over the holiday, not enough to significantly affect the nation’s dwindling water reserves, Wang said.
Photo: CNA
It has been a historically difficult dry season in Taiwan, with no typhoons making landfall during last year’s wet season to fill reservoirs, the ministry said.
The dry season does not end until May, it said.
The Central Weather Bureau has predicted this month and next month to be “drier than usual,” Wang said.
While the eastern part of Taiwan is not facing shortages, almost every area in the nation’s west is under some level of water restriction, she said.
After an interdepartmental meeting to discuss the situation, Tainan and Chiayi County on Thursday next week would be placed on an orange alert, up from a yellow alert, Water Resources Agency Director-General Lai Chien-hsin (賴建信) said.
Kaohsiung, and Changhua, Yunlin and Nantou counties would be placed on a yellow alert on the same day, although Taichung, and Hsinchu and Miaoli counties would remain on an orange alert, and Taoyuan on a yellow alert, Lai said.
The agency’s system states that areas under a yellow alert have water pressure reduced during off-peak hours, while the government would conserve water by delaying landscaping irrigation and exterior washing of public facilities.
An orange alert entails limiting total water use, as well as reducing water pressure.
Industrial water use in Hsinchu, Miaoli and Taichung would be cut by 11 percent, from 6 percent, the agency said.
Industrial water users in Tainan and Chiayi are to cut use by 7 percent, while non-industrial entities that use large volumes would cut usage by 10 percent, it said.
“We will be monitoring water meters to see if the standards are being adhered to,” Lai said. “If companies fail to comply after an encouragement, they would have their water supply cut off.”
With the exception of the third irrigation zone in Taoyuan, irrigation has been halted across Taiwan, Wang said.
As there is still “great uncertainty” over whether the situation would worsen, Wang called on the central and local governments, as well as the public, to conserve water as much as possible.
The government has mobilized emergency water resources, such as an emergency desalination plant in Hsinchu County and emergency wells, to bolster supply, Wang said.
If the situation demands it, the ministry would also begin artificial rain, or “cloud seeding,” operations, she said.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday issued a rebuttal to former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who said a fistfight in the Legislative Yuan might have been “provoked from the outside” to destabilize Taiwan. Rice made the comment in an online discussion about the AUKUS alliance of Australia, the UK and the US hosted by the Policy Exchange forum in London on Thursday. On mention of Taiwan, she was quoted by The Australian as predicting that Beijing would use paramilitary forces and acts of sabotage to destabilize the nation. “There was a fistfight in the Taiwanese parliament a few weeks ago
ADVANCING TECH: With revenue on target to reach US$15.4 billion, the Hsinchu-based chipmaker said it is looking to produce 3-nanometer chips later this year Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday announced plans to build a new plant in Japan next year to produce 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer chips in its latest effort to expand its global manufacturing footprint. The Japanese fab is to start operations in 2024, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker said, ending months of speculation. “We have received strong commitment to supporting this project from our customers and the Japanese government,” TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told a quarterly investors’ conference. “We believe the expansion of our global manufacturing footprint will enable us to better serve our customers’ needs and reach global talent,
KNOWN ISSUES: Fire safety issues were found in the 40-year-old building, which previously housed a theater and restaurants, in 2019, last year and May, an official said Forty-six people died and 41 were injured in a building fire that raged out of control for hours overnight in Kaohsiung, authorities said yesterday. Flames and smoke billowed from the lower floors of the 13-story Cheng Chung Cheng (城中城) building on Fubei Road in Yancheng District (鹽埕), as firefighters tried to douse the blaze from the street and aerial platforms. The death toll rose steadily through the day as rescue workers searched the combined commercial and residential building. By late afternoon, authorities said 32 bodies had been found, while a further 14 people who showed no signs of life were among 55
China’s recent increase in military exercises and warplane missions near Taiwan was necessary to defend sovereignty and territory, a Chinese official said yesterday, prompting Taipei to say that it had sabotaged peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. China’s military flew 56 planes off the southwest coast of Taiwan on a single day earlier this month, a single-day record that capped four days of a sustained pressure campaign involving 149 flights in international airspace. The purpose of the maneuvers was to “fundamentally safeguard the overall interests of the Chinese nation and the vital interests of people on both sides of the Taiwan
RSS