Taiwan Today

Unless there is significant rainfall, the Water Resources Agency under the Ministry of Economic Affairs will announce water rationing measures Aug. 10. Measures would include limits on total water released from Taipei County’s Feitsui Reservoir, and Tsengwen and Wushantou Reservoirs in Tainan County, southern Taiwan. Agricultural water supplies from Shihmen Reservoir, in the northern county of Taoyuan, would be discontinued, and subsidies for second season rice cultivation would be evaluated. The WRA convened a meeting of the drought response group July 23. According to WRA statistics, as of July 22, rainfall for all of Taiwan this year is only 57 percent of the annual average figure. Precipitation in the Shihmen Reservoir catchment basin is only 13 percent of the usual level. Current water supplies in the reservoir will only last until the end of September. Wu Yue-si, deputy director-general of the WRA, said the north, central and southern regions, plus Matsu’s Nangan Township, can all maintain steady water supplies to the end of September. Pressure on water supplies in the north is greater, with the water level in Shihmen Reservoir only about half of the usual level at this time of year. Strict water rationing measures will be necessary. Chiu Chung-chuan, director of the Shihmen Reservoir Administration, said May was exceptionally dry, with only 48 millimeters of rainfall, breaking the record low of 52.2 millimeters set in 2003. July has been equally dry, with only 34.8 millimeters of rain so far, compared to the average 270.6 millimeters. If conditions do not improve, the 1978 record low of 59.6 millimeters may be broken. The WRA has asked the Northern Region Water Resources Office to first take water from the Nanshi River, and has requested that Yunghoshan Reservoir in Miaoli increase its backup supplies to Hsinchu to 100,000 tons, so that Hsinchu’s support of water supplies to the Taoyuan area can be maintained at 30,000 tons to 50,000 tons daily. Water supplies in the southern region are now at normal levels, and will last until the end of September. However, according to the estimation of the Southern Region Water Resources Office, water levels in Tsengwen and Wushantou Reservoirs are already lower than the average level over the past five years, and will fall to the minimum level by the end of August. The office will meet with the irrigation association July 31 to determine whether further water rationing measures will be implemented. (THN)