The government is to implement phase-three water rationing in New Taipei City’s Linkou (林口), Banciao (板橋) and Sinjhuang (新莊) districts, and in Taoyuan on April 1 amid declining water levels at the Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫) in Taoyuan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
“This is a necessary decision in a bid to extend the length of the water supply from the Shihmen Reservoir,” Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Yang Wei-fuu (楊偉甫) told a press conference after a water supply meeting.
Water is to be supplied to the areas only five days per week on a rotation basis, affecting more than 1.01 million households and industrial users, Yang said.
Photo: CNA
“If the situation deteriorates, we might further increase the number of days that the water supply is suspended, such as supplying water for four days and then suspending the supply for two days,” he said. “The worst-case scenario would be to supply water only for a certain number of hours per day, but we are doing everything we can to prevent that from happening.”
Yang said it was agreed to reduce the supply of water to industrial users from the Shihmen Reservoir and the Yungshan (永和山水庫) Reservoir in Miaoli County.
“The 7.5 percent decrease in the daily water supply to industrial users will be increased to 10 percent, beginning on Monday next week,” Yang said.
The meeting also agreed to increase the daily reduction in supply to other industrial users to 7.5 percent from 5 percent, he said.
The Industrial Development Bureau is to report on the potential impact of phase-three water rationing on local industries by the end of next month, Yang said.
Yang said the government wants to encourage households to use water-saving tools to conserve water, including water-saving faucets.
The government plans to discount the bills of individual households if they save more than 30 percent of their water usage compared with last year, Yang said, adding that details of the plan are to be announced by the end of next month.
The government is considering implementing nighttime water rationing during the low-water season between November and March on a regular basis, he said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.