U.S. Water News Online
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Hit by the worst drought in many years, Taiwan has enforced water rationing in parts of the island, officials said.
Irrigation has been suspended in rice paddies in the worst drought-stricken areas since last month, and authorities have expanded the scope of water rationing to swimming pools and car washes, officials said.
Since January, Taipei received just 11 inches of rainfall, about 46 percent of the average of the past 30 years, while rainfall in southern Kaohsiung only totaled 1.7 inches or 27 percent of the 30-year average, the Central Weather Bureau said.
Weather forecaster Lin Ting-yi urged Taiwanese to conserve water, noting there are no signs of approaching rain in the next few days.
Water at Shihmen Reservoir, the largest reservoir in northern Taiwan, has dropped to the alarming level of 660 feet, and the water supply can only last three weeks without fresh rainfall, said a reservoir official.
Efforts to create rainfall have had only limited results, and authorities were compelled to ask more rice and other farmers to give up tilling their fields, he said.
Parts of Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan's largest lake, have dried up and dead fish were found on the cracked bottom of the lake, officials said. The lake in central Taiwan is a main source for power generation, irrigation and drinking water.
But spared from the drought is the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park, a cluster of high-tech firms, in northern Taiwan. The Paoshan Reservoir provides 13 tons of water to the industrial park a day and has no immediate danger of water shortage because its mountain areas received heavy rains the past few days, reservoir director Lu Chuan-yung said.
The capital Taipei, which has little industry or agriculture, has not enforced water rationing but water supplies have been cut at night, said Mayor Ma Ying-jeou.
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