Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) drew fire at a legislative session on Friday for saying he hoped typhoons would bring rains to drought-hit Taiwan.
During the question-and-answer session at the legislature on Friday, Jiang said he hoped the typhoon season would begin early when he was questioned by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) about the increasing scarcity of water.
Lu asked Jiang to describe the severity of the water shortages on a scale of zero to 10, with 10 being the most serious, and the premier said that the current severity is between seven and eight.
The water levels in 10 of the nation’s main reservoirs are about one-tenth of the levels seen in the past few years.
The rainfall in the catchment areas of Shihmen Reservoir and Tsengwen Reservoir in the first three months of the year hit their second-lowest and lowest marks respectively, Jiang said.
Jiang said that regrettably, he hoped for early typhoons.
When Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) took the podium to ask her questions, she accused the government of failing to come up with solutions to deal with the growing threat of water shortages and instead resorting to wishing for typhoons.
“It is ridiculous,” Chen said.
In his defense, Jiang said that typhoons are a principal source of the nation’s water supply and also suggested other measures to combat water shortages, such as water conservation.
In response to media inquiries, Jiang yesterday said the government has prepared contingent measures to help the nation deal with water shortages.
They include encouraging people to reduce daily water consumption, introducing water rationing measures for irrigation, and controlling the amount of water used by car washes and swimming pools, Jiang said.
National Cheng Kung University principal Hwung Hwung-hweng(黃煌輝) yesterday dismissed what Jiang had said as a joke.
With sea levels rising by an average of 0.6cm to 0.8cm, Taiwan would only see more water-related disasters in the future, he said, adding that a responsible government should start planning in advance and should prepare for both floods and droughts so that the public can live in a safe environment.
Jiang’s response was laughable because a typhoon would not come simply because one willed it, he said, saying the government should instead focus more on the management of water resources.
A responsible government should function in a way that there would still be water for use and drinking during a drought, and also deal with any problems that might have to do with flooding before a flood has hit, Hwung added.
Additional reporting by Meng Ching-tzu
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about