Even the nation’s tallest mountain has not been spared from a water shortage, with the Yushan National Park Administration Office yesterday providing three tips on how to conserve water as stores dry up.
Millions visit the park every year, many of whom stay in one of its 16 lodges and use the rainwater collected in their storage tanks, which hikers often jokingly call “lifesaving water.”
However, as the worst shortage in decades continues to ravage central Taiwan, the water supply at Paiyun Lodge (排雲山莊) — the only accommodation on the popular main peak hike — has already dried up, the office said.
Photo copied by Hsieh Chieh-yu, Taipei Times
The lodge is now using a diesel generator to pump in water from the upper reaches of the Nanzihsian River (楠梓仙溪), it said.
The Central Gold Mine Cabin (中央金礦山屋) also has no water left, and is similarly pumping in water from the nearby Laonong River (荖濃溪), it added.
All of the park’s other lodges are running dangerously low on water, highlighting the urgent need to conserve what is left, the office said, proposing three tips for hikers.
First, it recommended consuming 30ml of water per 1kg of body weight daily, which would work out to 1.8 liters for a person weighing 60kg.
As hiking is a strenuous activity, the office also suggested preparing at least double the recommended amount of water to ensure there is enough for the entire trip.
Second, people should pack food that requires little water and little energy to prepare, it said.
Third, hikers should be sure to familiarize themselves with the status of water sources along their route, the office said.
If the route goes through an area without a water source, people should add a stop to their itinerary in advance to reduce the risk of any issues, the office added.
Last, the office asked everyone to work together to conserve water to make it through this difficult time.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods