Water resources officials are preparing to implement new measures, such as transferring water to Taipei County from other counties and digging wells, to sustain northern Taiwan until the typhoon season arrives in July.
Beginning June 20, 10 new wells in Taipei County will supply at least 30,000 tonnes of ground-water daily to residents, according to the Water Resources Bureau last week.
"We ordered the contractors to complete the construction of 10 wells in Shulin Township [
Construction of six other wells in Hsinchu County will be launched this week in a bid to unearth 15,000 tonnes of groundwater daily, Chen said.
The groundwater would be transferred to Taipei County from one of the catchment areas of the Shihmen Dam in Taoyuan County, he added.
As of yesterday, water reserves at the reservoir were at 3 percent of capacity.
The water level rose a bit after the rainfall last Friday.
Operators and engineers working at Shihmen Dam last week checked all the pumps to see if the pumps are ready to transfer at least 30,000 tonnes of water daily if the water supply dips below the dead-storage level.
Construction of a pumping station to deliver 30,000 tonnes of water to Taipei County from Keelung may be completed by the end of June.
Meanwhile, officials said construction of four pumping stations will be completed by the end of June to transfer 50,000 tonnes of water daily from Hsinchu County to Taoyuan County, which is also supplied by Shihmen Dam.
In northern Taiwan, Chen said, all officials could do was to limit the use of water in an attempt to slow down the fall of water levels in the Shihmen Dam and the Feitsui Reservoir (翡翠水庫) in Taipei County.
Water resources officials are hoping that two wet fronts, which could arrive in Taiwan this week and the middle of the month, will provide enough water to alleviate the drought.
Continued water rationing in northern Taiwan, however, will not affect the water supply for irrigation use in central and southern Taiwan, when farmers begin to sow their crops in June, officials said.
The Cabinet's drought disaster-relief center will officially announce this week that crop planting in central and southern Taiwan will not be postponed, Chen said. Because of recent rains, the rice fields in central and southern Taiwan will not go fallow this month, Chen said.
The amount of water for irrigation use this summer might be reduced. According to the Council of Agriculture, the total area of rice fields being irrigated this summer only accounts for 76 percent of last year's total.
Taiwan's entry into the WTO and subsequent foreign competition forced farmers to reduce the amount of land used for rice production.
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