Some lakes and reservoirs on the island have almost dried up. Water restrictions have forced many residents to change the way they shower, wash dishes and flush water.

Tourists take photos at Sun Moon Lake in Nantou, Taiwan. CEDIT...

Authors: Amy Chang Chien and Mike Ives

Photo by Billy HC Kwok

Taichung, Taiwan — Lin Weiyi rarely considered flushing water through her shower heads, kitchen faucets and garden hoses.

But as Taiwan’s worst drought in more than half a century has intensified in recent weeks, 55-year-old Ms. Lin has begun to hold on to the tap. She followed the neighbor's suggestion, flushed the toilet five times with a bucket of water, opened the water tank and poured it directly in. She no longer washes the car, the car is so dirty that even the child twists and does not rub.

The months-long drought nearly depleted Taiwan’s main reservoirs, caused two severe power outages and forced officials to restrict water supply. It has brought huge changes to the landscape on the island: the bottoms of several reservoirs and lakes have been distorted like cracks on the desert floor, and large dusty areas. It has changed the way Taiwan's 23.5 million residents use and think about water.

"We used too much water before," Ms. Lin said in the central city of Taichung this week. "Now we must adapt to the new normal."

No typhoon landed on Taiwan last year, this is the first time since 1964. Tropical cyclones are the main source of precipitation in the reservoirs on the island. Some scientists say that the absence of recent typhoons is part of a decades-long pattern related to global warming, in which the intensity of storms hitting Taiwan has increased, but the frequency of occurrence has decreased every year.

The average rainfall this year is also much lower than normal, especially in the central region including Taichung. Taichung is a city with a population of 2.8 million and the second largest city on the island. As some forecasters predict, if there is heavy rain on Saturday, water shortages may begin to ease this weekend. But as of Friday, the water levels of the two main reservoirs that supply Taichung and other central cities are hovering between 1% and 2% of normal capacity.

In a few cases, the permanent residents of the island’s lakes and reservoirs—fish—were replaced by other species: tourists and social media influencers took visually shocking topographical photos for Instagram posts. In one of the most photogenic places, Sun Moon Lake, a reservoir in central Taiwan, the receding waterline reveals tombstones. Historians say these tombstones can be traced back to the Qing Dynasty.

The 27-year-old chef Huang Tingxiang said: “Taichung has been hot for a while, and the weather has been very hot. Last month I stopped cooking because of lack of water.” “These images of dangerously low water levels in reservoirs are frightening, but there is nothing we can do.”

To combat drought, the government has been drawing water from wells and desalination plants, using airplanes and burning chemicals to sow clouds over reservoirs, and stopping irrigation of farmland almost the size of New York City.

It also severely restricted residential water supply. In the hardest-hit area in Taichung, water has been shut off twice a week since early April. Some residents have very low water pressure even on other days. Officials said that if the heavy rain expected over the weekend is not realized, the restrictions will become more stringent starting Tuesday.

Luo Shanglian, a professor at the Institute of Environmental Engineering at National Taiwan University, said the current restrictions are necessary, partly because people on the island tend to use a lot of water.

According to government data in 2019, in Taichung, domestic consumption per person per day is 283 liters, or nearly 75 gallons. In the capital, Taipei, it is 332 liters per day. In contrast, according to official estimates, the average residential water consumption in Europe is about 144 liters per person per day, and 310 liters in the United States.

Professor Luo said that Taiwan’s relatively high water consumption is partly due to its water price-according to Fitch Ratings, which is the lowest in Asia-stimulating excessive consumption. "In view of all the extreme weather events that have occurred in recent years, water policy has become something that we need to reconsider and replan," he said.

However, raising these prices is politically sensitive, and a spokesperson for the Water Resources Bureau said the government has no immediate plans to do so.

At present, many people in Taiwan are looking to the sky and praying for rain.

One sign of public sentiment is that more than 8,000 social media users watched an hour-long live broadcast of the afternoon thunderstorm weather in the northern reservoir of Taiwan, which was recently broadcast by the government. A bubble tea shop in the northern city of Taoyuan said it will stop serving ice cubes and drinks until the water restriction is lifted. In Taichung, water conservancy officials held a rain worship ceremony at the temple-this was the first time since 1963 and the fourth time since the temple was built in 1730.

Ms. Lin, who stopped washing the car, used her dishwashing water from the dirtiest to the cleanest to clean the dishes on the assembly line of the metal pan.

"I still need to wash the things I need to wash," she said, "but now every drop needs to be used twice."

In the first few weeks of rationing, some people tried to escape from life without running water. Ms. Lin went sightseeing in the eastern city of Hualien and visited one of her daughters in Taipei. Others go to hot springs.

Lin Qingtan, who owns Taichung Kirin Peak Hot Spring Resort, said that as a humanitarian gesture, he has cut the ticket price by half to about $5. He also started taking a shower at work and then went home at night.

"If you don't have water to take a bath, it may be torture," he said.

But as the government restricts actions to combat Taiwan’s worst coronavirus outbreak since the pandemic began, more islanders are trapped at home, looking for creative ways to extend the scarce water supply. On Facebook and other social media platforms, people have been sharing water-saving tips, including how to flush the toilet more effectively or install a second rooftop water tank.

Chef Huang said that he and his family have a system that can store water in buckets, cans and tanks before the tap dries out every Tuesday and Wednesday. He added that they also try to order takeaway so they don't have to cook with water, although their favorite restaurants and food stalls sometimes close for the same reason.

Ms. Lin's system involves placing a plastic container under her feet in the shower and then using it to flush the toilet.

This week, on her balcony, she poured water used in the kitchen on some flowers, but let the others wither. "There is no turning back in extreme weather," she said. "Developing a good habit of saving water may just be a preview of frequent droughts in the future."

Amy Chang Chien reported from Taichung, Taiwan, and Mike Ives from Hong Kong.