Two desalination plants are set to begin operations this month, as the government seeks to mitigate the effects of little rainfall over the past few months, the Water Resources Agency said on Wednesday.
One of the plants, in Hsinchu City, is scheduled to begin trial operations in the middle of this month and provide 9,000 tonnes of water per day to the city by the end of this month, the agency said in a statement.
Construction of the other plant, in Kaohsiung, is almost complete, it said, adding that the plant is likely to begin trial operations by the end of the month.
Limits on water use remain in effect in parts of Taiwan, particularly in the south, where reservoirs have received little to no rain since September last year.
On March 24, the Executive Yuan approved a plan to supply an additional 136,000 tonnes of water to southern Taiwan per day through better water management and newly drilled wells, among other measures.
The agency has recently raised the water conservation alerts for Tainan and Kaohsiung from “yellow” to “orange,” the second-highest level on the agency’s four-tier alert system.
Under an orange alert, industrial water users and nonindustrial heavy users face restricted water supply. A “red” alert, the highest on the scale, would mandate water rationing.
The agency said it has also placed supply limits on swimming pools, car washes, saunas and aquatic therapy centers.
The agency has also issued a “yellow” alert for Chiayi County and Chiayi City, meaning water pressure during off-peak hours would be reduced.
Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County, Miaoli County, Taichung and northern Changhua County have been placed on a “green” alert — the lowest level on the agency’s scale, resulting in no supply restrictions.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
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A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
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