Premier Wu Den-yih said Thursday that the government will seriously examine the possibility of imposing higher water rates in times of drought to force conservation.
However, a rate increase will not be implemented “at this particular stage,” he said.
The proposal to increase water rates during droughts was raised at a national security-level meeting hosted by President Ma Ying-jeou Wednesday to discuss ways of coping with the current water crisis in Taiwan.
According to a preliminary plan by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) , the increased water rates will affect mainly heavy users — those who consume more than 30,000 liters a month.
Wu Yueh-hsi, deputy director-general of the MOEA’s Water Resources Agency (WRA) , said the government will inform the public before finalizing and implementing the policy.
He predicted that such a step will help encourage water conservation and recycling and give a boost to the desalination industry.
As part of the government’s efforts to fight the ongoing drought, a “phase one” water rationing, in which water pressure to households is reduced at night, has been imposed in counties and cities where water reserves have dropped the sharpest. The areas include Hsinchu, Taoyuan, Miaoli, Taichung, Changhua, Kaohsiung, Tainan and some parts of New Taipei City.
If there is still no significant rainfall in the coming weeks, a “phase two” water rationing will be introduced, the government said.
In the second stage, the supply of water for non-urgent purposes such as street-cleaning will be suspended. Water for swimming pools, car-washes and saunas, as well as the supply to big users will be cut by 20 percent, while industrial users will see a cut of 5 percent.
According to Premier Wu, the government hopes that the water crisis can be resolved by the end of June so that there will be no need for “phase three” water rationing, which means the supply to different zones will be rotated.
Shin Tzay-chyn, director-general of the Central Weather Bureau, said it is still too early to tell how severe this year’s drought will be. The plum rain season is not yet over and the typhoon season starts soon after that, he noted.
Shin, however, predicted that the frontal systems expected to hit Taiwan this week and next week will not bring much rainfall.
In light of the low chances of rain, the WRA tried Thursday to induce rain artificially in Taoyuan and Miaoli.
Also Thursday, a group of Taichung city councilors from the Kuomintang urged the central government to build a desalination plant in Taichung soon to meet the water needs of the city’s 2.6 million residents.
According to councilors Chu Nuan-ying and Huang Hsin-hui, constructing a desalination plant will be more economical than building a reservoir and can be a viable solution to water shortages.
