The government is to impose phase one water rationing measures on Chiayi city and county and Tainan on April 5 amid a lack of rainfall and continued falling water storage levels at reservoirs in southern Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The decision came after the ministry implemented phase one rationing for areas supplied by the Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫) on March 1 and in Kaohsiung on Monday.
“We made the decision mainly because the water storage at two reservoirs that supply Chiayi have shrunk to an alarming level,” Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Yang Wei-fu (楊偉甫) told reporters.
In addition to the phase one rationing in selected areas, Yang said the ministry would initiate cloud seeding in the hope that it would not have to implement phase two rationing before the end of next month and phase three rationing before the end of May.
“If the circumstances allow not to have to implement stricter water rationing measures, we estimate the constrained supply could be eased by June,” Yang said.
In a separate meeting, the Taipei Water Department agreed to lower the price of processed water it sells to Taiwan Water Corp (台灣自來水公司), in a bid to ease the state-run water company’s financial burden, the Water Resources Agency said.
The department will sell water at NT$5.9 per 1,000 liters for amounts less than 380,000 tonnes, compared with NT$5.9 per 1,000 liters for amounts less than 300,000 tonnes, the agency said.
The new price for purchasing more than 380,000 tonnes would be NT$3.5 per 1,000 liters, down from NT$5.2 per 1,000 liters for more than 300,000 tonnes of water.
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