Five Myths About Taiwan

choi

Ralph Jennings, Five Serial Myths About Taiwan. Forbes, May 19, 2015.
www.forbes.com/sites/ralphjennings/2015/05/19/3137/

Quote:

"homes in Taiwan are [not] tiny and cramped [unlike] notoriously small flats of Hong Kong and Japan. Taiwan’s older apartments run on the roomy side.

"Food is cheap and filling [in Taiwan]. But most of what you get here you can get somewhere else, and it may have originated offshore [read: China].

"Most claims to outsized friendliness [o Taiwanese] rest on comparisons of Taiwan to China, a rival ethnic Chinese territory where some still shout, shove and spit in public. It’s impossible for me here not to remember the loads of help I got from mainland Chinese during my seven years in Beijing as well as encounters in Taipei with shoving, shouting older people.

"Taiwanese use an average of 72 gallons of water per day, more than in Europe or the United States.

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest.

(b) I am always interested in water use.
(i) The  “an average of 72 gallons of water per day” per person in Taiwan (Taiwan has foreigners, too--mainly foreign labor) is for human use--excluding agriculture and industry.
(ii) For the ratio, see
MingDaw Su and Yi Fong Ho, Agricultural Water Management Systems in Taiwan: Current Status and Policy Directions. Food & Fertilizer Technology Center (FFTC). Feb 5, 2014.
www.fftc.agnet.org/files/lib_articles/20140303155349/eb%20649.pdf

, where “municipal use” in “Fig 1 Sectorial [sic; should be ‘Sectoral’] water demands in Taiwan [from 1976 to 2011? (inclusive)]” is called 生活用水 in Taiwan.
(iii) 水利統計-- 公務統計報表. by Water Resources Agency, Ministry of Economic Affairs 經濟部水利署.www.wra.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=42091&ctNode=5292&comefrom=lp

has 2014 data: "自來水生活用水量統計(103年) (xls檔案下載 | PDF檔案下載 ) ": 每人每日生活用水量(公升): 274 on average and ranging from 333 (the most: 新北市) to 113 (the least: 金門縣) -- 連江縣 (Matsu) 166 (second least) and 澎湖縣's 220 (third least).
(iv) 經濟部水利署 in a separate publication also stated, "99年 [2010] 台灣地區 [including 離島] 自來水供(配)生活水量為30億8,437萬立方公尺，占生活用水量之94.72% * * * 民國99年度台灣地區自行取水量1億7,187萬立方公尺 [mostly from aquifers].”