Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) on Thursday called for tighter water conservation efforts following a report by the Water Resources Agency that the nation’s reservoirs only have a little more than three months’ supply of water.
Climate change research showed that Taiwan would experience longer periods without rain, although some downpours would be more intense, Executive Yuan spokesman Lin Tze-luen (林子倫) quoted Chen as saying after receiving the agency’s report at a Cabinet meeting.
The agency should continue its efforts to improve the water distribution network and develop more water supply sources, particularly in the western half of the country, Lin cited Chen as saying.
Photo courtesy of a reader
Agency data showed that agriculture typically accounts for about 70 percent of water usage in the nation, while domestic consumption accounts for 20 percent and industry 10 percent.
The volume of rainwater collected in reservoirs across the nation so far this year was only 30 to 60 percent of the typical average, the agency said.
Since October last year, the agency has been promoting mitigation measures, including more frequent cloud seeding and improved irrigation techniques, it said.
To date, the measures have saved about 840 million tonnes of water overall — equivalent to the capacity of four Shihmen Reservoirs (石門水庫) — and has helped the country through this year’s dry season, the report said.
Taiwan is now in the latter half of the dry season and has only about three months’ supply of water left in its reservoirs, it said.
However, given the uncertainty of spring rain patterns and the high demand for water during the heading stage of grain crops like rice, wheat and corn, water supply levels must be closely monitored, particularly at the Shimen, Baoshan (寶山), Yongheshan (永和山) and Liyutan (鯉魚潭) reservoirs in the north, the report said.
Currently, those reservoirs are at 30.7 percent, 33.29 percent, 56.82 percent and 35.23 percent of capacity respectively, agency data showed.
The agency earlier this month raised its drought monitoring signal for Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli and Taichung from a blue light to a green light, reminding people to conserve water.
Under the agency’s five color-based signals, blue signifies normal water supply, while green signals tight water supply. Yellow, orange and red indicate water shortages and a need for increasingly severe water rationing measures.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
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
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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
RSS