 Most people are under the common impression that the rainfall in Taiwan is quite abundant every year.The fact is,most of the rainfall is rapidly lost to the ocean due to strips of populous areas,the abrupt geographical features of Taiwan's mountains and torrid downpour.
Therefore,actual rainfall that is allotted per year only reaches the seventh place in the global average rainfall. According to world standards,a country or region is considered an arid region when the water supply in the region per person per year is between100 tons to 200 tons.According to this standard,Taiwan belongs to a arid area because the usable rainfall per person per year is only about 1000 tons.In addition,the rainfall in Taiwan tends to cause zonal or seasonal drought very easily because of the unequal distribution in certain areas and during certain seasons.As a result of economic development,population growth and the increasing costs of exploiting new water sources( such as the building of dams ), Taiwan's problem of water shortage will only go from bad to worse in the future. |
On the right is a table of statistics of rainfall of Rainfall in the World major countries in the world. The mean rainfall per year in Taiwan is approximately 2510mm (approximately 90.4 billion cubic meters ).It is triple that of the global average. However, due to land formation and Taiwan's population, the estimated amount of utilized water is only 18.4billion cubic meters. This calculation makes Taiwan's utilized water only reach the serventh of the world average. It shows that usable water resources in Taiwan are not fully utillzed. Water shortages continue to occur due to the unequal distribution of rain, as rainfall during the rainy seasons are incomparable to that during the drier seasons.
