After the longest spell of rain in the island’s history, now we are told we are in the midst of a drought. Is that possible? Fire the dude in charge of water resources. It has rained every day almost for eight long months. There is a thread dedicated to it on Forumosa that bemoans it with avengence and now we are told their will be water restrictions. Last time, 8 years ago there really was a drought because that was the last time northern Taiwan saw three fine days in a row. What a miserable bunch of leaders this island really has.
Fox, just go up and look at any reservoir. No need to speculate. It’s there before your eyes how low our water levels are. It can rain for a month but if it doesn’t rain in the right places, and if the rain is not exceptionally hard then it doesn’t make much more than a spit in the ocean.
Alternatively, without a drought they couldn’t get the surcharge from TSMC. 
Wasn’t there a report a couple of years ago about poor water management and pipes leaking millions of gallons of water into the ground because of poor maintenance?
This is interesting though, as you can see the old farmsteads, houses and tea plantations which were flooded to create the dams. Ghostly relics.
You mean it rained in Keelung and Taipei and Taoyuan for months and months, for the rest of the island it’s hardly rained at all, dry as a bone. The reservoirs only hold a few months water supply on average. Taiwan’s rainfall patterns are quite unusual with a large amount depending on torrential rains and typhoons, also due to the shape and size of the island, the water tends to run off the mountains and hard to keep hold of it. I"ve not looked at the stats but I guess Taiwan experiences drought like conditions once every 5-10 years. China has had massive problems with droughts this year also.
Until last year when the drought broke, there were umpteen ten-year olds in Australia who had never seen rain. That’s a drought.
Fix the damn water infrastructure, Taiwan.
That’s true. I can’t remember the last time it really rained in Chiayi.
Isn’t that the truth, urodacus. Unfortunately, the Queensland government (at least) is crook as @£!ing hell, so water restrictions for Queensland STILL haven't been lifted, water prices are still high, and the @£!ing dam is nearly full and they’re NOT USING IT (and they kept the bloody thing at 97% when we were due torrential rain, causing the Brisbane flood! Retards). But don’t say any of this to anyone living in Brisbane, 'cause they’ll all get really upset and call you unAustralian, yeah?
We had a light smattering of rain down here in Tainan yesterday morning, I think. Aside from that… I think we had a day of light rain about two weeks ago. I can’t remember the last time before that (March or February sometime, I think? We had quite a wet winter for us, Tainan winters are usually dry as a bone). We’re supposed to be in the plum rains down here, but they still haven’t come. Starting to get really humid though; it was a nice, dry heat last week, now it’s getting wet… so hopefully we’ll start getting some afternoon storms. Or a typhoon.
So why don’t they build reservoirs in the right places? 
So why don’t they build reservoirs in the right places? [/quote]
People tend to build houses where it rains.
Are Northern reservoirs empty too? I thought it was only Southern ones?
The wasteful water practices here are a very large part of the problem. Wet rice cultivation must be a huge issue. Plus, around where I am, there are tons of fruit farms with sprinklers going the whole day. Often they put as much water on the road as on the farms. How about some drip irrigation, some mulching and watering at night, rather than letting well over half of what gets on the farms simply evaporate? Maybe if they got a little bit smarter with this kind of stuff they’d have more water, not to mention all the people hosing down driveways instead of sweeping them and so on.
I don’t know what Fox is talking about. It rained very little this winter and spring in Taibei. I’m sure of it, because I rarely had to wear my rain suit on the bike, and commented on this several times, as well as on worries that it would result in a drought.
Yeah. Not much rain at all this year.
Only explanation would be that Fox lives in… Shitzhi or something.
Xizhi and Donghu get more rain than Xinyi district. There’s some kind of bubble effect over central Taibei that keeps temps higher and reduces rainfall, I believe.
Yeah. Not much rain at all this year.
Only explanation would be that Fox lives in… Shitzhi or something.[/quote]
Taipeh had pretty much continuous rain for months.
That’s what I thought. Last winter was the worst i have ever experienced in Taiwan, both temperature wise and with the consistent rainfall. It was horrible.
Of course we were all just joking 
and I actually am figgin’ kidding you :discodance: so dont worry… there is no drought and there won’t be a drought
Light rain for about one hour is all we got in Kaohsiung in the last two months. Sunny every day. It’s lovely. Water reserves are running low. It will all be back to normal when June rolls in with the torrential rain.
Taiwan’s water problem isn’t going to go away, no matter if the leaky pipelines are fixed. The real problem is that about 80% of the rain falls in just 6 months of the year, making it hard for reservoirs to meet demand in the dry months.
As I remember, there are over 40 reservoirs in Taiwan currently supplying drinking water and construction of more is feasible but politically dangerous. Evicting farmers and aborigines from a mountain valley just doesn’t help at election time, especially when the direct beneficiaries would be 50 or 100km away in a city. Add to that the huge cost of dam-building and pipeline-laying, plus the serious risks associated with seismic activity, and you can see why there isn’t much political will to build more reservoirs.
There was a plan to build an islandwide bidirectional water main that would be able to divert water to hard-hit regions when necessary, but not sure if it was completed (or if it was ever started at all). In any case, this would be a band-aid measure in times of crisis.
It’s true. I lived in Neihu not far from where Fox lives and I would keep complaining about the rain whereas, Xinyi livers wouldn’t have a clue what I was talking about.
And now the milk shortages will begin coz the cows don’t get enough water and are hot. :loco: