TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) Disaster Emergency Response Team has announced tighter restrictions on water use in Tainan and Chiayi beginning March 1, in response to low rainfall throughout the south.

The MOEA team uses a traffic light system to classify the levels of water use restriction, with Tainan and Chiayi being set to orange and yellow lights respectively, according to CNA.

Chiayi has been put on the yellow light setting, meaning that water pressure will be reduced, and water supplies to non-essential state-owned irrigation, fountains, and street cleaners will be suspended.

Tainan has been placed on the more severe orange light setting, meaning that in addition to the conditions of the yellow light setting, water usage in Tainan will be restricted by 20% for households that consume more than 1,000 units of water per month, and industrial users will have their water consumption reduced by between 5 and 20%. Supply of water to swimming pools, car washes, and other non-urgent use categories will also be reduced by 20%.

Taiwan’s Bureau of Meteorology predicts that rainfall will be low in the south throughout March. In a meeting on Saturday (Feb. 18) attended by Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua, the MOEA said there are plans in place to strengthen water supply resilience in the area and to increase the water supply by 136,000 tons per day.

MOEA established a drought response team in August 2022 that implemented measures that have saved 660 million tons of water to date.