More than 500 military personnel with dredging equipment have been mobilized to increase the capacity of five reservoirs as the country faces its most severe water shortage in decades, the Ministry of National Defense said on Tuesday.
Military officers and Water Resources Agency officials inspected the Shimen, Mingte, Liyutan, Tsengwen and A-kung-tien reservoirs from March 19 to Monday last week, said Major General Lin Wen-huang (林文皇), chief of the ministry’s Joint Operations Division.
Subsequently, the military dispatched 507 troops and 209 excavators, bulldozers, dump trucks and other equipment to support the agency’s dredging work, Lin said.
Photo courtesy of the Military News Agency
Soldiers from several army corps have been stationed in areas close to the reservoirs since Thursday last week, and began dredging work on Tuesday morning, Lin said, adding that funding would come from the Executive Yuan’s budget for fighting the water shortage.
The military told a news briefing that 124 troops have been assigned to support dredging at Shihmen Reservoir in Taoyuan, 111 at Tsengwen Reservoir in Chiayi County, 113 at Liyutan Reservoir in Miaoli County, 110 at Miaoli’s Mingte Reservoir and 49 at A-Kung-Tien Reservoir in Kaohsiung.
On Tuesday, the Eighth Army Corps Command started dredging work at Tsengwen and A-Kung-Tien reservoirs, with the aim of removing 300,000m3 to 600,000m3 of sediment from Tsengwen and 20,000m3 from A-Kung-Tien Reservoir, said Zou Hau-gui (鄒漢貴), deputy head of the agency’s Southern Region Water Resources Office.
More than 3 million cubic meters of sediment were removed from Tsengwen Reservoir last year, which increased the reservoir’s capacity by 1.55 million cubic meters, Zou said.
On average, 60,000m3 of sediment per year are removed from A-Kung-Tien Reservoir, Zou added.
Agency of Irrigation Director Tsai Sheng-fu (蔡昇甫) said that the water level at Mingte Reservoir is about 48.72m, or 11.32 percent of capacity, the lowest it has been since 1993.
The Sixth Army Corps Command aims to remove 330,000m3 of sediment from the reservoir, with dredging work to continue through the end of June, Tsai said.
Taiwan is facing its most severe water shortage in 56 years after no typhoons made landfall last year, with water supply in parts of Taichung, Miaoli and northern Changhua to be suspended for two days per week.
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