Taiwan’s Water Resources Agency says that although water rationing has been pushed back for a week in the southern city of Kaohsiung, the situation remains bleak.
The agency’s Secretary-general Lai Chien-hsin spoke on Monday about the Kaoping River which is the nation’s second biggest river. He said that the water volume of the river, which is located in drought-stricken southern Taiwan, is above the drought level. However, he said the volume is just one third of the average in recent years.
“The river is flowing at about ten cubic meters per second," said Lai. "That’s slightly higher than Kaohsiung’s drought level of 8.1 cubic meters per second. But the volume is still relatively lower when compared with the average volume in the same period in recent years, which is about 30 cubic meters per second.”
Taiwan is facing its worst drought in 67 years, with storage capacity of all the nation’s reservoirs at a lower level than in previous years.
Rainfall on Sunday and cloud seeding efforts have lengthened the water supply in northern Taiwan’s Shihmen Reservoir for another three days.