Water Use in Taiwan

choi

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(1) Leon Kaye, Taiwan Faces Tough Water Choices; The country needs a fair use policy and better water conservation to avoid the risk of an economic disaster. Guardian, June 24, 2011.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/taiwan-tough-water-choices

Quote:

Though "Taiwan ranks second in the world in average annual precipitation, much of its rainfall occurs during sudden typhoons and the country's water infrastructure captures little of it.

"The per capita water consumption in Taiwan averages 271 liters (72 gallons) a day, higher than the average daily water usage of Europeans and even Americans. While agriculture continues to be Taiwan's most water-intensive industry, its semiconductor industry requires massive amounts of water and struggles to procure it.

"One reason for the high consumption of water is the low rates paid by residents throughout the country – one-tenth the price paid in most of Europe. * * * Meanwhile, Taiwan's high tech sector, which has a water recycling rate that varies between 65 and 85%, struggles to stay compliant with the government's water rationing policy.

"So far TSMC has set the water conservation bar the highest. At its Hsinchu foundry, the company collects about 32,000 tonnes of rainwater for reuse annually. TSMC's management team constantly looks out for any water-saving technique available. The company's water conservation programmes include: collecting water from air conditioning condensation for reuse; recycling systems effective to the point where the most toxic materials in waste slurry are scrubbed out and leave the purest water available for semiconductor processing; and a water infrastructure within its foundries that diverts recycled water to toilets and other facilities that do not require pure water.

"While the attention paid to Taiwan's water troubles has focused on electronics companies, the agriculture industry consumes 70% of the island's water but contributes only 1.6% to its GDP. The government wants to boost its national food self-sufficiency rate from 32 to 40%



(2) Pat Gao, Facing a Thirstier Future. Taiwan Review, Feb 1, 2011.
http://taiwanreview.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=47603&CtNode=119

Quote:

"The cost of water has remained unchanged for the last 14 years, with the average household devoting only 0.5 percent to 0.6 percent of total monthly expenditures for their water bills. In contrast, households in arid Israel devote about 10 percent of total monthly household expenditures to paying water bills, according to figures compiled by that country's Central Bureau of Statistics. Not surprisingly, Israel has one of the highest rates of water conservation in the world. In Taiwan, however, the artificially low price of water effectively discourages conservation and recycling efforts. Individuals and businesses do not pay anywhere near the actual production cost of the water they use

"Although water remains cheap, initial conservation efforts have borne results. On average, per capita water consumption has remained steady since 1993, even as per capita gross domestic product (GDP) has grown. In 1993, consumption was 287 liters per person per day, while per capita GDP was US$12,475. In 2006, consumption was 284 liters per person per day, while per capita GDP had more than doubled to US$28,011.

"Currently, not quite 20 percent of Taiwan's households are served by public sewerage systems carrying wastewater to treatment plants. While Taiwan's two biggest cities, Taipei and Kaohsiung, have household connection rates to wastewater systems of more than 60 percent and 40 percent respectively, there are counties that still see very low connection rates, with some hovering close to zero.

"In the industrial sector, which consumes about 9 percent of the nation's supply of conventional water, conservation efforts are also paying off. According to the National Council for Sustainable Development, average water consumption for each NT$100 million (US$3 million) in production value for the manufacturing sector dropped from more than 35,000 cubic meters in 1998 to 16,000 cubic meters in 2006. * * * Currently, the overall wastewater recycling rate for all of Taiwan's industries is around 60 percent, with the rate expected to rise to 65 percent by 2011

"As for the agricultural sector, which consumes about 71 percent of all water used in Taiwan, the major issue is the amount of unused water that passes through irrigation systems, eventually emptying into rivers and then the ocean. 'Around 5 billion metric tons of water just flows away each year,' the TWEA's Chiou Ren-jie says.

Note: Chiou Ren-jie 邱仁杰 is with a private Taiwan Water Environment Association 台灣水環境再生協會 (TWEA; http://www.twea.org.tw) and an associate professor in the Department of Environment and Property Management at Taipei County's Jinwen University of Science and Technology 私立景文科技大學.



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※ 修改:．choi 于 Jun 26 16:10:18 修改本文．[FROM: 129.10.0.0]