Water pressure in Taichung, and Hsinchu and Miaoli counties is to be reduced around the clock, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
In addition, large non-industrial water users will have to cut daily consumption by 20 percent, it said.
“The reservoirs in those regions are now less than 20 percent full,” Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said after a meeting at the Central Emergency Operation Center on the nation’s water situation. “We have decided that it is necessary to step up water conservation efforts.”
Photo: CNA
Prior to the new measures taking effect yesterday, water pressure in the three areas had been lowered from 10pm to 6am daily, while large non-industrial users, such as pools and car washes, had to reduce daily use by 10 percent.
Industrial users will continue to have to cut daily consumption by 11 percent, the ministry said.
With no typhoons last year and water reserves low, Taichung and Tainan, as well as Hsinchu, Miaoli and Chiayi counties, have been placed under “orange alert,” which entails limiting total water use and reducing water pressure.
Taoyuan and Kaohsiung, and Nantou and Changhua counties are on “yellow alert,” which means reduced water pressure, but no obligation for large users to reduce daily usage, the ministry said.
Emergency wells and an emergency desalination plant have been brought into service to provide a small amount of steady water per day, the ministry said.
As up to 70 percent of the nation’s water supply goes to agriculture, irrigation has also been halted over most of the nation, affecting the first rice harvest this year, it said.
As the world is already in the middle of a semiconductor crunch, all eyes are on how the water shortage might affect Taiwanese chip manufacturers.
Last month, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) started trucking water daily to their facilities. The two companies have reduced their daily water consumption by 11 percent, local news outlets reported.
If the water supply problem does not improve, a “red alert” would be issued, which would see phased water stoppages, with daily use getting top priority, followed by the medical, defense and industrial sectors, the ministry said.
The nation is likely to remain under a dry spell until May, when the rainy season begins, it said.
US PUBLICATION: The results indicated a change in attitude after a 2023 survey showed 55 percent supported full-scale war to achieve unification, the report said More than half of Chinese were against the use of force to unify with Taiwan under any circumstances, a survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University found. The survey results, which were released on Wednesday in a report titled “Sovereignty, Security, & US-China Relations: Chinese Public Opinion,” showed that 55.1 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that “the Taiwan problem should not be resolved using force under any circumstances,” while 24.5 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disagreed with the statement. The results indicated a change in attitude after a survey published in “Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
‘MISGUIDED EDICT’: Two US representatives warned that Somalia’s passport move could result in severe retaliatory consequences and urged it to reverse its decision Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has ordered that a special project be launched to counter China’s “legal warfare” distorting UN Resolution 2758, a foreign affairs official said yesterday. Somalia’s Civil Aviation Authority on Wednesday cited UN Resolution 2758 and Mogadishu’s compliance with the “one China” principle as it banned people from entering or transiting in the African nation using Taiwanese passports or other Taiwanese travel documents. The International Air Transport Association’s system shows that Taiwanese passport holders cannot enter Somalia or transit there. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) protested the move and warned Taiwanese against traveling to Somalia or Somaliland
Four former Hong Kong opposition lawmakers jailed in the territory’s largest national security case were released yesterday after more than four years in prison, the first among dozens convicted last year to regain their freedom. Former legislators Claudia Mo (毛孟靜), Jeremy Tam (譚文豪), Kwok Ka-ki (郭家麒) and Gary Fan (范國威) were part of a group of 47 public figures — including some of Hong Kong’s best-known democracy advocates — who were charged with subversion in 2021 for holding an informal primary election. The case fell under a National Security Law imposed on the territory by Beijng, and drew international condemnation and warnings
RSS