# A Drought -- you've got to be friggin' kidding me **URL:** \ **Category:** Living in Taiwan\ **Tags:** taitung, weather, water\ **Created:** [May 12, 2011, 4:34am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873 "2011-05-12T04:34:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Mucha\_Man](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Mucha\_Man](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/Mucha_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 2:00pm UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/81 "2011-05-14T14:00:41Z")
Psst, Icon, the sane water thread is over here [A drought? No kidding](http://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-no-kidding/64924/10) This one is being left for the droughters. ---
**Author:** ![Icon](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/icon/32/189245_2.png) [@Icon](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/Icon)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 2:37pm UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/82 "2011-05-14T14:37:44Z")
Thanks. Did notice two but did not notice the “leaning”. LOL. ---
**Author:** ![GuyInTaiwan](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/guyintaiwan/32/789_2.png) [@GuyInTaiwan](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/GuyInTaiwan)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 3:15pm UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/83 "2011-05-14T15:15:57Z")
> [@yuli](#): > > But, for better or for worse, in “Taiwanese English” the term is now “drought” - and people from other countries need to understand that it may not mean what it means in their home countries. Just like toast actually being bread in this country. No, there is no such thing as “Taiwanese English”. There is English (of various native speaking varieties) and then there is something that is wrong. Call it Chinglish or call it plain wrong, but it’s not “English”. ---
**Author:** ![Mucha\_Man](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Mucha\_Man](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/Mucha_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 3:31pm UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/84 "2011-05-14T15:31:29Z")
Sigh. Does anyone bother to check some basic facts before they post. It’s not just Taiwan that calls these kinds of seasonal water shortages droughts. So does Vancouver where I come from. We’re one of the rainiest place in Canada but if we don’t get a lot of snow in the winter then we have water shortages in summer. Doesn’t matter how much it rains in the spring, we need the snow melt. [quote]B.C’s provincial environment Minister Barry Penner advised British Columbians on Monday to brace for possible drought in many areas of the province this summer following two months of unusually warm and dry weather. Snowpacks in river basins across B.C. are below normal levels and with only four to six weeks of winter remaining, time is running out to make up the difference.[/quote] Maybe it’s because we have so many Chinese and Taiwanese that we are unsure how to use the language. 😒 ---
**Author:** ![GuyInTaiwan](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/guyintaiwan/32/789_2.png) [@GuyInTaiwan](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/GuyInTaiwan)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 3:39pm UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/85 "2011-05-14T15:39:14Z")
No, it’s because you’re from a place that doesn’t really experience droughts. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Jack](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/charlie_jack/32/246096_2.png) [@Charlie\_Jack](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/Charlie_Jack)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 3:41pm UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/86 "2011-05-14T15:41:16Z")
I think a lot of people who’ve been here awhile (obviously not all, but a lot) immediately think of mismanagement when they learn of a public problem. People can offer other explanations, and those explanations may well be given some weight, but the mind tends to gravitate back to the idea of mismanagement. I don’t want to go into the details of why that happens, because it would resemble that griping business that some people find so distasteful. ---
**Author:** ![Mucha\_Man](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Mucha\_Man](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/Mucha_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 4:12pm UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/87 "2011-05-14T16:12:52Z")
> [@GuyInTaiwan](#): > > No, it’s because you’re from a place that doesn’t really experience droughts. Yeah, we all use the word wrongly except the Australians. 😆 ---
**Author:** ![Gman](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Gman](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/Gman)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 4:31pm UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/88 "2011-05-14T16:31:24Z")
[quote=“Mucha Man”]Sigh. Does anyone bother to check some basic facts before they post. It’s not just Taiwan that calls these kinds of seasonal water shortages droughts. So does Vancouver where I come from. We’re one of the rainiest place in Canada but if we don’t get a lot of snow in the winter then we have water shortages in summer. Doesn’t matter how much it rains in the spring, we need the snow melt. [quote]B.C’s provincial environment Minister Barry Penner advised British Columbians on Monday to brace for possible drought in many areas of the province this summer following two months of unusually warm and dry weather. Snowpacks in river basins across B.C. are below normal levels and with only four to six weeks of winter remaining, time is running out to make up the difference.[/quote] Maybe it’s because we have so many Chinese and Taiwanese that we are unsure how to use the language. 😒[/quote] Well no, we just have people who use the language imprecisely which is why we have such things as context. Besides, this a politician you’re sighting hardly a gate keeper of the proper use of the English language. However, he appears to be talking about B.C. province wide not just Vancouver and there are places in BC that experience real droughts from time to time. I don’t remember Vancouver ever having water rationing, water restrictions but not rationing. I don’t remember ever not being able to take a shower when I wanted to. Your point about rains in the spring being insufficient is correct. Oddly enough a very heavy rain when the reserviour is low usually results in water ristrictions or advisories due to stirring up of sediments. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Jack](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/charlie_jack/32/246096_2.png) [@Charlie\_Jack](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/Charlie_Jack)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 4:32pm UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/89 "2011-05-14T16:32:35Z")
If Taiwan is experiencing a drought, I guess it’s a socio-economic drought: > [@](#): > > Socio-economic drought is associated with failure of water resources systems to meet water demands and thus associating droughts with supply of and demand for an economic good (water) (AMS, 2004). Socio-economic drought occurs when the demand for an economic good exceeds supply as a result of a weather-related shortfall in water supply. [drought.si/index.php?page=drought](http://www.drought.si/index.php?page=drought) [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Z-es4Q8AJaU/hqdefault.jpg "The Temptations - I wish it would rain") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-es4Q8AJaU) ---
**Author:** ![Mucha\_Man](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Mucha\_Man](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/Mucha_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 4:45pm UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/90 "2011-05-14T16:45:21Z")
Sigh again. Come on folks. Do a little friggin reading. How do we define drought? [quote]The Concept of Drought Drought is a normal, recurrent feature of climate, although many erroneously consider it a rare and random event. It occurs in virtually all climatic zones, but its characteristics vary significantly from one region to another. Drought is a temporary aberration; it differs from aridity, which is restricted to low rainfall regions and is a permanent feature of climate. Drought is an insidious hazard of nature. Although it has scores of definitions, it originates from a deficiency of precipitation over an extended period of time, usually a season or more. This deficiency results in a water shortage for some activity, group, or environmental sector. Drought should be considered relative to some long-term average condition of balance between precipitation and evapotranspiration (i.e., evaporation + transpiration) in a particular area, a condition often perceived as “normal”. It is also related to the timing (i.e., principal season of occurrence, delays in the start of the rainy season, occurrence of rains in relation to principal crop growth stages) and the effectiveness (i.e., rainfall intensity, number of rainfall events) of the rains. [/quote] Let’s repeat that one line: > [@](#): > > Drought should be considered relative to some long-term average condition of balance between precipitation and evapotranspiration (i.e., evaporation + transpiration) in a particular area, a condition often perceived as “normal”. So low rainfall in a rainy area that is not sufficient for normal needs is a drought. Like we are having, or close to having, in many places in Taiwan. [drought.unl.edu/whatis/conce … perational](http://www.drought.unl.edu/whatis/concept.htm#operational) ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Jack](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/charlie_jack/32/246096_2.png) [@Charlie\_Jack](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/Charlie_Jack)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 6:15pm UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/91 "2011-05-14T18:15:34Z")
What a strange thing! I post a quote from a website which is all about drought, and which characterizes, defines, and categorizes drought: [quote=“Charlie Jack”]If Taiwan is experiencing a drought, I guess it’s a socio-economic drought: > [@](#): > > Socio-economic drought is associated with failure of water resources systems to meet water demands and thus associating droughts with supply of and demand for an economic good (water) (AMS, 2004). Socio-economic drought occurs when the demand for an economic good exceeds supply as a result of a weather-related shortfall in water supply. [drought.si/index.php?page=drought](http://www.drought.si/index.php?page=drought)[/quote] The whole damn website I linked to is about drought! (Not that I read everything that was on it, or understood everything I read, but I got the gist of it.) And then you come back with this: > [@Mucha Man](#): > > Sigh again. Come on folks. Do a little friggin reading. How do we define drought? Etc. I repeat: If you’re the wise, sane one, I wanna be foolish and crazy! [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVqJl-FOYIA) ---
**Author:** ![Fox](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Fox](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/Fox)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 7:42pm UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/92 "2011-05-14T19:42:25Z")
Meanwhile the drought continues. Wu said the last two days of rain had brought 15 million tons of water to reservoirs in Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli, 15 million tons to reservoirs in central Taiwan, around 20 million tons to southern Taiwan reservoirs, and around 9 million tons to Feitsui Reservoir in northern Taiwan. Fear not you citizens: As the drought has not yet lifted, Wu said, the agency is planning to do cloud-seeding between May 16 and May 18, depending on the weather conditions. ![](http://www.outlawjournalism.com/images/ChemtrailsFrontSmoke.jpg) ![](http://whipstitchfabrics.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/india-drought.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Gman](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Gman](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/Gman)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/93 "2011-05-14T20:12:11Z")
> [@Mucha Man](#): > > I now leave this thread in the hands of fox and friends. 🙇‍♂️ Welcome back !! :flog: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CraigTPE](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/craigtpe/32/1516_2.png) [@CraigTPE](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/CraigTPE)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 9:56pm UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/94 "2011-05-14T21:56:31Z")
> [@Ecaps](#): > > It’s not so much about how much rain falls, it’s about usage. There is so much water waste in Taiwan and one of the primary reasons is that water is far too cheap. I was thinking this, too, as I have watched a construction site next to my gym spraying ENORMOUS amounts of water every day on the street outside the construction site. They do this all over the place, drought or not. The hose is on all frikkin day. What purpose does that serve? I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Gman](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Gman](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/Gman)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 11:20pm UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/95 "2011-05-14T23:20:09Z")
> [@CraigTPE](#): > > [quote=“Ecaps”]It’s not so much about how much rain falls, it’s about usage. There is so much water waste in Taiwan and one of the primary reasons is that water is far too cheap. I was thinking this, too, as I have watched a construction site next to my gym spraying ENORMOUS amounts of water every day on the street outside the construction site. They do this all over the place, drought or not. The hose is on all frikkin day. What purpose does that serve? I don’t get it.[/quote] I’ve seen that too. I’ve wondered if that water is even metered. ---
**Author:** ![GuyInTaiwan](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/guyintaiwan/32/789_2.png) [@GuyInTaiwan](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/GuyInTaiwan)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 12:23am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/96 "2011-05-15T00:23:31Z")
Muzha Man: Australia also has lots of mountains. My father had a Canadian friend in Australia who used to chuckle over all the hills with Mt in front of their name. I chuckle over the notion of a drought in Canada or Taiwan. Likewise, Australia experiences snow, but if I told Europeans or North Americans that we’d had a particularly heavy snowfall one year because a couple of mountains (there’s that word again) had received an extra three inches of snow that winter, they’d laugh their arses off. Getting less than average rainfall per year actually wouldn’t matter if they used water halfway efficiently here. If they did, they’d have too much of it. This can only be considered a water shortage or drought in the sense that it’s such a gross mismanagement of resources. There is no lack of rainfall. This is not a climatic issue. ---
**Author:** ![GuyInTaiwan](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/guyintaiwan/32/789_2.png) [@GuyInTaiwan](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/GuyInTaiwan)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 12:28am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/97 "2011-05-15T00:28:56Z")
> [@Gman](#): > > [quote=“CraigTPE”][quote=“Ecaps”]It’s not so much about how much rain falls, it’s about usage. There is so much water waste in Taiwan and one of the primary reasons is that water is far too cheap. I was thinking this, too, as I have watched a construction site next to my gym spraying ENORMOUS amounts of water every day on the street outside the construction site. They do this all over the place, drought or not. The hose is on all frikkin day. What purpose does that serve? I don’t get it.[/quote] I’ve seen that too. I’ve wondered if that water is even metered.[/quote] I seriously doubt it otherwise they’d be a lot more careful with it. Also, does anyone know if industrial or agricultural users pay the same as residential users? I bet they don’t either otherwise I wouldn’t see lots of farmers around here watering the roads as much as their farms. Of course, a lot of that which does spray on their orchards would evaporate because it’s not directed right at the roots and there is no mulching, which would also serve two other functions – weed suppression without chemicals and organic fertiliser without chemicals. No, instead the solution is always to spray more (water or chemicals) indiscriminately. ---
**Author:** ![Dragonbones](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/dragonbones/32/1125_2.png) [@Dragonbones](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/Dragonbones)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 1:39am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/98 "2011-05-15T01:39:08Z")
[quote="CraigTPE"I have watched a construction site next to my gym spraying ENORMOUS amounts of water every day on the street outside the construction site. They do this all over the place, drought or not. The hose is on all frikkin day. What purpose does that serve? I don’t get it.[/quote] I presume that it keeps the dust down, and that otherwise all our bikes and cars and furniture would have an extra couple mm of dust on them every day, and respiratory illness (and death) would increase. ---
**Author:** ![CraigTPE](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/craigtpe/32/1516_2.png) [@CraigTPE](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/CraigTPE)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 2:04am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/99 "2011-05-15T02:04:58Z")
> [@Dragonbones](#): > > [quote=“CraigTPE”]I have watched a construction site next to my gym spraying ENORMOUS amounts of water every day on the street outside the construction site. They do this all over the place, drought or not. The hose is on all frikkin day. What purpose does that serve? I don’t get it. I presume that it keeps the dust down, and that otherwise all our bikes and cars and furniture would have an extra couple mm of dust on them every day, and respiratory illness (and death) would increase.[/quote] Seriously? Better hose down the whole city… drought be damned. ---
**Author:** ![yuli](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/y/8dc957/32.png) [@yuli](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/yuli)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 3:06am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873/100 "2011-05-15T03:06:00Z")
[quote=“Charlie Jack”]What a strange thing! I post a quote from a website which is all about drought, and which characterizes, defines, and categorizes drought […] And then you come back with this: > [@Mucha Man](#): > > Sigh again. Come on folks. Do a little friggin reading. How do we define drought?[/quote] Charlie Jack, things like that happen in all threads! And they don’t mean what you think it means… This has happened to me more than once: i’ve just read the posts of X and Y and start formulating a response, which takes me some time, because i am going to reference some other document in that reply. In the meantime Z posts something, and when my post is done it ends up after Z’s post - and my post is perfectly out of sync, and i look like someone who can’t read (or worse). Also your definition might not satisfy everybody looking for a definition of what is happening on the ground. As it happens, i find your definition very appropriate and would not use the word “drought” myself if the only issue was not enough water for a rapacious population but still enough for the rest of nature. In such a case i would go along with what Sandman suggested and talk about “water shortage” (something that is referenced to the human users of water), but the media in Taiwan has set the stage long ago and talks about “drought” - and so Mucha Man’s explanation covers that aspect nicely and should stand right next to yours, neither preempting the other. In short: quite obviously Mucha Man was not addressing you or your post. 🙂 :2cents: [Previous page](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873.md?page=4) [Next page](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/a-drought-youve-got-to-be-friggin-kidding-me/64873.md?page=6)