Natural catastrophe or man-made disaster?

The fresh water supply situation has worsened the lingering drought in Taiwan partly because of the Democratic Progressive Party authority's lack of long-term planning for water resource utilization, an expert said recently.

Starting from April 6, some parts of central Taiwan suspended the supply of tap water on two days each week to cope with the drought, affecting more than 1 million households.

Tang Yonghong, the deputy director of the Taiwan Research Center at Xiamen University, said that the utilization of water resources needs long-term planning as no temporary plan could meet the demands in times of emergency.

Taiwan authority has not built more reservoirs to help reserve enough water during the wet season, and only one reservoir built in more than 10 years, Tang said.

The local authority has also failed to make any preparations for possible drought ahead of time, Tang said. Last year, no typhoon passed by Taiwan, the first time in 56 years, to bring enough rainfall to the region.

In early April, the water levels at major reservoirs in central Taiwan dropped to around 10 percent of the total capacity and the Sun Moon Lake, a famous tourist destination, has also seen waste on its dry bottom.

While suspending tap water supply on certain days, local authority should also better manage water use in agriculture and industry and carry out artificial precipitation operations, Tang said.

Rather than praying for rain, a political show of the DPP authority, Taiwan could seek help from the Chinese mainland, he said. But the DPP authority might not turn to the Chinese mainland, due to so-called "political factors".

A water supply project built in 2018 between Fujian province and Kinmen has helped secured the water supply in Kinmen. From Aug 5, 2018, to March 28, 2021, the supply of fresh water to Kinmen reached about 12.2 million tons. The daily water supply rose from 14,000 to 17,100 tons since Jan 1 this year.