Water supplies from reservoirs in southern Taiwan are being controlled after low rainfall in the region last year caused the nation’s worst water shortage in 30 years, and could affect this year’s supply, the Water Resources Agency said on Sunday.
Only 1,299mm of rain fell in southern Taiwan last year, the lowest level since 1992, with Zengwen Reservoir (曾文水庫) receiving 112mm less precipitation than two years ago, when the country’s largest reservoir was nearly empty amid a serious shortage, the agency’s Southern Region Water Resources Office said in a statement.
The water supply remains stable in southern Taiwan, but the rainy season is several months away, and the certainty of rainfall is low, the agency said.
Photo courtesy of the Water Resources Agency’s Southern Region Water Resources Office
The agency asked the public to conserve water and prepare for shortages.
As of midnight on Saturday, a joint water resource system comprising Zengwen Reservoir in Chiayi County and Wushantou Reservoir (烏山頭水庫) in Tainan was at 25.9 percent capacity, with a usable water supply of 152.01 million cubic meters.
Meanwhile, Nanhua Reservoir (南化水庫) in Tainan is at 50.2 percent capacity, with a usable water supply of 44.85 million cubic meters.
The water supply for Tainan is mostly sourced from the three reservoirs, the agency said.
The agency said it would conduct cloud seeding to improve rainfall in southern Taiwan when weather conditions permit, along with adopting better water-saving measures to meet expected demand, it said.
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