Taipei rations residential water to fight drought
Date: 14-May-02
Country: TAIWAN
Author: Alice Hung
But weather forecasters held out hope that much-needed rain could come this week to alleviate the drought, which has caused panic runs on bottled water in Taipei and sparked fears from hotels that they might lose customers.
Taiwan cut water supplies for car washes, swimming pools, saunas and other non-essential services from last Wednesday.
But with no major break in the drought, Taiwan extended the cuts yesterday to include general supplies to the capital's residents and businesses.
Taiwan's Silicon Valley, a key centre for the island's computer chip making industry, is not affected by any cuts, government officials said.
Under the latest rationing measures, Taipei's five districts will take 24-hour turns having their water supplies cut by 20 percent.
About 420,000 households were affected yesterday.
"It's very inconvenient," insurance agent Chen Li-shui complained. "When clients come to visit, we can't make tea for them."
Shops and restaurants stored water in containers, while heavy users such as hotels and department stores turned to private operators to buy water.
"We will try to conserve water as much as possible. We use all kinds of containers to store water but the space is limited," said a vendor who sells omelettes and soya milk for breakfast.
But hotel operators feared they might lose customers if the drought persists.
"The closure of the swimming pool and sauna has already drawn complaints from customers," said a spokeswoman at a five-star hotel in downtown Taipei.
"If the drought continues, I am afraid foreign visitors will stop coming to Taiwan," she said.
Taipei's rainfall so far this year has been less than half of the average rainfall seen in the past 30 years.
Hopes now rest with seasonal May and June "plum rains", which fall when plum trees usually blossom, to fill reservoirs.
The Central Weather Bureau said the likelihood of rain was high in the next few days, triggering hopes life can return to normal.
FOREST FIRE
The dry weather was also hampering efforts to put out fires engulfing a mountain in central Taiwan, threatening some endangered landlocked salmon. Officials said the fire covered more than 100 hectares (247 acres).
Taiwan's Hsinchu science park, where many of the world's most sophisticated microchips are made, has not been hit by a water shortage and the government has pledged to make water supplies to the technology firms a priority.
Semiconductor plants require large amounts of water to cool equipment and maintain precise humidity in "clean rooms", where they lay down microscopic circuits on wafer-thin silicon chips.
Semiconductor companies can use water recycling technology to cut down their water use by as much as 80-85 percent in newer plants.
State-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp said yesterday it would consider scaling down operations at its northern Taoyuan refinery if the drought forced rationing of industrial water.
A slowdown in industrial production would be a blow to the island as it recovers from its worst economic recession.
Earlier this month, the island of Matsu, which is nearer to China than the main island of Taiwan, bought more than 2,000 tonnes of water from China, the first such contact since Taiwan split from China after the civil war in 1949.
Self-governing Taiwan is wary of over-dependence on China. The mainland views Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be reunified, by force if necessary.
