Drought in Taiwan – Taiwan – ech2o newsletter snippet

Taiwan is the most recent country to suffer a devastating drought. Taiwan should be one of the rainiest places in the world – its climate is subtropical in the northern and central regions, and tropical in the south. Typhoons are common in summer and autumn, it also gets monsoons and it rains so often that umbrellas are placed at subway stations and businesses for anyone to borrow. But something unusual happened in 2020. No typhoon hit the island. And there has been little rain in the past year. That has plunged Taiwan into its worst drought in 56 years. By April and May of this year, many of its reservoirs were at less than 20% capacity, with water levels at some falling below 10%. Some cities had piped water supplied on just two days a week, with tanker delivery on the remaining five days. Read more in this article from the BBC, which explains how if reservoirs in Taiwan dry up, it could be detrimental for the global electronics sector, since most  semiconductors are manufactured in Taiwan and the industry is very water intensive.