Our club is turning off the pool & jacuzzi on May 8th as per government orders. As the water recirculates and is changed only once a month, how does this save water. They still keep the showers running though??? Are any other clubs closing their pools down too? How about the american clubs pool?
Rascal. The draught is a world wide prob too, we have water restrictions in some rural areas in Australia. Can only water your lawn before 6 am and after 9pm. Anyway check out this link about your club. Cheers Amos. http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2002/05/01/story/0000134060
There’s also a bit of a drought going on in the US!! USA Today Weather
Does anyone, besides God, know what’s going on? I can’t ever remember this happening before in Taiwan. Would this have a link to global warming perhaps?
From all accounts the situation is becoming rather acute, but damn, haven’t the past six months or so been absolutely freaking fabulous as far as weather goes in this part of the world?
Considering current global weather trends, it might behove the Taiwan government to start replanning water policy in a sensible way. The country has the money to do it.
Surely the answer to the current cycle of too much rain when you don’t want it (typhoon season) and bugger all rain when you need it most (like this extra-long dry season) can be solved pretty easily by building bigger reserviors.
This isn’t Holland. Taiwan’s bumpy terrain lends itself to holding water.
Unfortunately, reservoirs can be quite destructive because they flood ecosystems, block the movement of fish up and down stream, etc. Actually, a forest might hold just as much water as a reservoir…it’s just that you can’t see it…it’s held in the soil and in the trees themselves.
My Taiwanese girlfriend has always been very sparing in her water use. She runs her hand-wash and shower water into bowls, then pours it into a bucket and uses it to flush the toilet or water the flowers. I’ve got into those habits, too, under her influence. Instead of running out the bathwater, I fill buckets with it and use it as described above. Now that there’s a drought, let’s all not flush after peeing. Get used to the colour yellow, it’s no big deal. If this drought goes on much longer, we’ll all have to get used to the sight of other people’s unflushed turds, too.
quote:
Originally posted by Juba: Unfortunately, reservoirs can be quite destructive because they flood ecosystems, block the movement of fish up and down stream, etc.
The fish will work it out, with a few steps and a little help. At least the Salmon in the UK do.
Plus people are more important then fish. Lack of reseviours are unhealthy to humans.
quote:
Originally posted by *monkey*: Considering current global weather trends, it might behove the Taiwan government to start replanning water policy in a sensible way.
Gosh, I wish I shared your optimism!
You may recall the recent story of the Kaohsing director of public works who recently lost his job when he blamed last years flooding on mainlanders who had moved to the area. For those of you who live outside Taiwan, the ‘mainlanders’ he was referring to were people who came from the Chinese mainland with CKS in 1949.
The next day the Chinese news was saying that perhaps the current drought was because Taiwanese (as opposed to mainlanders) were drinking all the water. Ha ha.
I think Monkies right, whats wrong with building more reseviours? If the current capacity has a tendency to run out then you need to increase capacity. Hell, it’d probably save money in the long run.
Have a closer look at what I said. I am saying that a forest acts as a reservoir. Therefore, if you flood a forest to make a reservoir, you have only destroyed one reservoir to make another. This has been a big issue on Taiwan’s environmental agenda for many years, particularly with regard to a proposed reservoir in Gaoxiong County which would flood Meinong township, a center of Hakka culture. Read the story on http://www.taiwan.com.au/Envtra/Protection/EP/Water/2000/0805a.html.
As President Chen rightly says, instead of building new reservoirs, what Taiwan really needs is more efficient use of its existing water resources. I heard on TV yesterday that up to half of Taibei’s water supply leaks away before it even reaches consumers! Clearly plenty of room for improvement there!
Well if they can’t fix this leakage in under a year it would be prudent to build another reseviour.
Well it appears that none of the clubs/spas will drain their pools afterall. Since all the club pools are illegal and classified as fire prevention source water (like giant fire hydrants) so they can stay filled. Imagine that!!! I’ve been swimming in a fire prevention tub all this time while I thought it was a swimming pool with laps and all. This country never ceases to amaze me!
The drought goes on…
Splendid ! I will leave my taps on all night in celebration !
I have been in Taiwan over 26 years. There have been water shortages before. Maybe those were not as serious as this one, but they were still serious to the point where people seriously considered the need to conserve water.
In the Taiwan living environment, most people live in apartments. It is possible to build apartments to be more water efficient, however the many suggestions to do so (such as to make the necessary adjustments to building codes) have been completely ignored by the government. Hence, the storage of certain types of water (such as water used after washing vegetables, washing clothes, taking baths) could be put in separate storage tanks and re-used for flushing toilets, etc. While some apartment dwellers may make some modest efforts to do this themselves, to be effectively done on a large scale, this kind of innovation needs to be incorporated into the design of the apartment buildings themselves.
Even in many places in Japan, the toilets are designed so that (1) the water used to do a simple hand washing goes into the toilet storage tank, (2) other “used” water may be conveniently poured into the toilet storage tank at any time. This is not as big an innovation as establishing separate storage tanks in the building to hold this “used” water, but it is certainly a step in the right direction. In Taiwan however, these kinds of toilets are unknown. Hence, the government’s do-nothing attitude is a clear source of the current problem.
If you didn’t see the Times today, the rationing begins Monday. That means every five days (weekends excluded)at least one section of Taipei will lose water for a 24 hour period. From 4am to 4am.
Ta-an District will be cut off this coming Monday. So, everyone, be prepared.
Well that is probably a step that needs to be taken with any island thats getting very crowded, but as far as cost effectiveness goes it seems fixing the aquaduct system and mabye building a new reseviour would be better. Its just the efforts to change even a small thing in every apartment would lead up to a lot of collective energy being spent.
SAVE WATER
DILUTE IT!!!
My take is that aside from the government being quite blas
Adding reservoir capacity would help alleviate problems, as more water could be stored during rainy times. This could be done by clearing out the silt that has accumulated over the years at existing reservoirs, thus reducing their capacity. This, of course, would be a major project requiring a great deal of money.
Also, I think it’s 27 percent of supply that is lost to leakage. This could be reduced by replacing aging pipes. Again, that would cost money.
Raising water fees would provide the funds for these two projects. Also, higher fees would encourage conservation.