By KHT Staff. AI illustration image.
TAINAN — Recent rain brought some relief to southern Taiwan’s strained water supply, raising inflows at Tainan’s major reservoirs and allowing cross-basin water diversion from the Kaoping River (高屏溪) system to restart.
Rain on May 16 increased inflows to Zengwen Reservoir (曾文水庫), which had fallen to one of its lowest levels for the same period in recent years. Over the past three days, the reservoir’s catchment area received 58 millimeters of rain, according to the Southern Region Water Resources Branch (南區水資源分署).
Despite the increase, Zengwen Reservoir’s storage rate remained low, at 11.84 percent on May 17.
The rain also helped restore flow in the Cishan River (旗山溪), an upstream tributary of the Kaoping River, allowing officials to restart cross-basin diversion to Nanhua Reservoir (南化水庫). Officials estimated the diversion could send about 500,000 tonnes of stream water to Nanhua Reservoir in one day.
Nanhua Reservoir’s catchment area received 35 millimeters of rain, but officials said the reservoir did not see a major direct increase. Its storage rate stood at 28.42 percent on May 17.
Wushantou Reservoir (烏山頭水庫), another key source for the Chianan irrigation area, remained at about 34 percent capacity. Officials said short-term irrigation supply should not be affected because Zengwen Reservoir had already sent water to Wushantou before temporarily suspending supply due to turbine maintenance.
Tainan is also receiving about 100,000 tonnes of treated water per day from Kaohsiung through a clean-water pipeline to support household use.
The Southern Region Water Resources Branch said the latest rain was helpful but not enough to end the water shortage pressure. Forecasters expect another possible plum rain front in early June, but officials said conditions remain uncertain and water dispatching would continue to be adjusted based on rainfall and reservoir levels.
