A Drought -- you've got to be friggin' kidding me

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
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21

It’s all bullshit Taipei received 25% more than the average rainfall for Neihu in the period January to April this year. That’s 25% more than the average rainfall in one of the wettest suburbs in the city. It rained a lot.

Neihu
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
21mm 71mm 32mm 83mm 67mm 63mm 56mm 106mm 109mm 73mm 37mm 19mm
12 10 10 10 11 8 7 10 9 10 11 10

This is the average rainfall by month for Neihu. Taipei received 281mm of rain from Jan to April.

For Taipei in general it received 42% more than average.

22

I think the UFOs you found last year have been siphoning off water to produce hydrogen for the long journey back to the mother planet.

23

I think the UFOs you found last year have been siphoning off water to produce hydrogen for the long journey back to the mother planet.[/quote]

Just look at the statistics. The average rainfall for Taipei is 165mm from January through April we had a whopping 281mm.

42% more than average. I don’t need UFO’s to help me see what’s staring me in the face.

24

I thought it had something to do with silt, with the reservoirs getting silted up. I read that 'way back there. Was that wrong, or has that changed, or is that just in a particular locale in Taiwan, or what? I also looked up the leaky pipe idea that someone posted here, and apparently that’s in the mix, too.

Not griping, just recalling/reporting what I’ve read, probably in news sources on the 'net.

Heh-heh, Fox, you’re not going to believe this, but I really and truly had similar thoughts to yours after I read about water shortages in the paper this morning, and I thought about posting about it, but I thought the better of it. I thought, naw, someone will jump all over that.

25

[quote=“Charlie Jack”]I thought it had something to do with silt, with the reservoirs getting silted up. I read that 'way back there. Was that wrong, or has that changed, or is that just in a particular locale in Taiwan, or what? I also looked up the leaky pipe idea that someone posted here, and apparently that’s in the mix, too.

Not griping, just recalling/reporting what I’ve read, probably in news sources on the 'net.

Heh-heh, Fox, you’re not going to believe this, but I really and truly had similar thoughts to yours after I read about water shortages in the paper this morning, and I thought about posting about it, but I thought the better of it. I thought, naw, someone will jump all over that.[/quote]

It’s pouring rain outside now. You would have to be brain dead if you thought we were having a drought in Taipei.

26

[quote=“Fox”][quote=“Charlie Jack”]I thought it had something to do with silt, with the reservoirs getting silted up. I read that 'way back there. Was that wrong, or has that changed, or is that just in a particular locale in Taiwan, or what? I also looked up the leaky pipe idea that someone posted here, and apparently that’s in the mix, too.

Not griping, just recalling/reporting what I’ve read, probably in news sources on the 'net.

Heh-heh, Fox, you’re not going to believe this, but I really and truly had similar thoughts to yours after I read about water shortages in the paper this morning, and I thought about posting about it, but I thought the better of it. I thought, naw, someone will jump all over that.[/quote]

It’s pouring rain outside now. You would have to be brain dead if you thought we were having a drought in Taipei.[/quote]

All the rain falling in Taipei will have ZERO effect on reservoir capacity as it will all wash into the sea. Rain falling into the mountains of Taipei County may raise levels slightly. You can go out to the reservoirs and check but I suspect you’d rather get off on these conspiracies in the privacy of your own home. :laughing:

27

[quote=“Fox”][quote=“Charlie Jack”]I thought it had something to do with silt, with the reservoirs getting silted up. I read that 'way back there. Was that wrong, or has that changed, or is that just in a particular locale in Taiwan, or what? I also looked up the leaky pipe idea that someone posted here, and apparently that’s in the mix, too.

Not griping, just recalling/reporting what I’ve read, probably in news sources on the 'net.

Heh-heh, Fox, you’re not going to believe this, but I really and truly had similar thoughts to yours after I read about water shortages in the paper this morning, and I thought about posting about it, but I thought the better of it. I thought, naw, someone will jump all over that.[/quote]

It’s pouring rain outside now. You would have to be brain dead if you thought we were having a drought in Taipei.[/quote]

It’s bone dry at this end. About 30 degrees and not a breeze this evening. We had a georgous day. You northerners are dumb. :wink:

28

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.

There. I said it.

29

Quite right! And raising the absurdly low water rates would be one thing that could help bring the necessary changes about…

You may want to rethink that. :wink: Wet rice cultivation is exactly the right system for this part for the world! Even Wikipedia has something useful to say on that :

Not to mention how wet cultivation builds up fertile soil while modern irrigation-based cultivation methods lead to a reduction of top soil and to waterlogging and soil salinity problems. Another benefit that goes beyond agriculture: wet-cultivation makes the land flood-resistant, thus it help protect soil in areas with irregular rainfall, especially monsoon and typhoon-affected areas. In sum, wet-cultivation has proven its worth over a few thousand years of application - something that we can hardly claim for any of our contemporary agricultural methods…

You’re kidding, no? :smiley:

30

I’m not so sure that this is correct under the modern paradigm of concrete channels and tiny parcel fields. Maybe true in large semi-natural flows, but has no influence in completely tamed concrete mini-fields as seen in Taiwan and japan.

31

I’m not so sure that this is correct under the modern paradigm of concrete channels and tiny parcel fields. Maybe true in large semi-natural flows, but has no influence in completely tamed concrete mini-fields as seen in Taiwan and japan.[/quote]
Would like to hear some specifics of the apparent disadvantages of using concrete where once soil was used. No doubt, the last 115 years, or so, have seen some changes in the rice paddy structure in Japan and Taiwan, and i can imagine that these changes may not have been to the better - but there are still places where people are using the pre-industrial paddy setup, and perhaps i’ll have a chance one day to do a representative comparative study.
Not withstanding recent changes to a millennia-old approach, i think this remains true: if you were to abolish the wet-cultivation system in Taiwan (and many other places), you would invite a host of new problems, one of which would be topsoil runoff at the time of heavy rains.
In any case, methinks that if the current system was no good, the answer would not be to replace it with something new and unproven but to return to the proven system of the past. :slight_smile:

32

I think the UFOs you found last year have been siphoning off water to produce hydrogen for the long journey back to the mother planet.[/quote]

Just look at the statistics. The average rainfall for Taipei is 165mm from January through April we had a whopping 281mm.

42% more than average. I don’t need UFO’s to help me see what’s staring me in the face.[/quote]

11 inches of drizzle over a four month period in the city is worth less than a one inch downpour in the mountains. It all gets soaked up in the ground or goes down the drain. Yeah, it’s really raining today, the drought is broken.

Like Charlie Jack said, there’s a big silting problem in the reservoirs, especially Shimen.

And as you know fox, Taiwan wouldn’t know a drought from a monkey’s arse. It’s just a water-shortage problem.

33

I think the UFOs you found last year have been siphoning off water to produce hydrogen for the long journey back to the mother planet.[/quote]

Just look at the statistics. The average rainfall for Taipei is 165mm from January through April we had a whopping 281mm.

42% more than average. I don’t need UFO’s to help me see what’s staring me in the face.[/quote]

11 inches of drizzle over a four month period in the city is worth less than a one inch downpour in the mountains. It all gets soaked up in the ground or goes down the drain. Yeah, it’s really raining today, the drought is broken.

Like Charlie Jack said, there’s a big silting problem in the reservoirs, especially Shimen.

And as you know fox, Taiwan wouldn’t know a drought from a monkey’s arse. It’s just a water-shortage problem.[/quote]

It’s a water fuck up problem. There is plenty of water. In fact, there is way too much water. But there is also a lot of imbeciles in charge of the problem. There is no way 42% above average rainfall can be considered a drought. I know from hard earned experience that the most moderate of observers will tell you it is just a matter of where the rain falls, but surely that is not a reason; that is an excuse. It is water falling from the sky. How about we trap a little of it?

I spent the evening amongst the densest of friends who were not backward in coming forward about the drought, but Jesus H. Christ basically it never stops raining.

[quote]11 inches of drizzle over a four month period in the city is worth less than a one inch downpour in the mountains. It all gets soaked up in the ground or goes down the drain. Yeah, it’s really raining today, the drought is broken.
[/quote]

11 inches is a lot of rain. If it gets socked up in to the ground that is the best case scenario for filling dams. Evaporation is actually the greater challenge in terms of Taiwan’s water resources.

I know what you mean though, but that is not what is being presented. What is being presented is 11 inches in Taipei 42% above average as representative of a drought. Fuck me. That’s not possible.

34

Were the news about water levels in reservoirs being low about Taipei or about Taiwan?

Should we ask Mucha Man and everybody else who posted right after your initial post that they delete their messages and ask the moderator to rename this thread “Fuck me, I want to vent and not listen to anybody”? :wink:

35

most of the dam’s water comes from typhoons and plum rain(spring rain), last year, no typhoons hit northern taiwan and this year’s plum rain isn’t going to be that strong…

36

yuli: Fair points regarding wet rice cultivation.

Fox: It does seem like if all the water is flowing away into drains then a pretty clever idea might be to reconfigure those so they flow into a giant purification plant. At least get the water pure enough for agricultural purposes or other non-drinking purposes. (For instance, is it really necessary that toilets use water of the same quality as tap water?) Is that really that hard to figure out for the knuckleheads in charge?

37

Fascinating how water can be a problem in a place where there is so much of it. In the Middle East, you get rain only in the Winter, yet they all seem to muddle through. And, the water is drinkable (at least in Israel and Jordan).

38

Got: Do they though? Many Middle Eastern countries have desalination plants that burn massive amounts of fossil fuels. Also, I vaguely remember reading something recently about the Dead Sea rapidly shrinking in size because of irrigation, kind of like what has happened with the Aral Sea in Central Asia. One of the options being considered was to connect it via a channel to the Red Sea, I believe, but then they thought that would have a massive environmental impact. Also, isn’t the Jordan River kind of screwed for the same reason or am I confusing that with another river?

39

[quote=“yuli”]Were the news about water levels in reservoirs being low about Taipei or about Taiwan?

Should we ask Muzha Man and everybody else who posted right after your initial post that they delete their messages and ask the moderator to rename this thread “Fuck me, I want to vent and not listen to anybody”? :wink:[/quote]

:laughing: Well, we try. We try.

40

It’s pissing down in Taidong at the moment, as it has every other day for the past however many months. In April it seemed to do nothing but rain all day every day. This I remember distinctly because we organised a party weeks in advance and that weekend we had perfect weather, but the week or two on either side it rained constantly.