Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang described the campaign to counteract the drought in a report at the Presidential Office's monthly gathering Monday.

Shih said the ministry hopes to build Taiwan into a water-saving society and has outlined measures, including implementing preferential water rates and providing subsidies for people who purchase water-saving products, to encourage people to reduce their water consumption.

President Ma Ying-jeou has been promoting water conservation since he assumed office in May 2008. In that year, his administration set a water consumption ceiling in the hope of saving Taiwan from drought crises.

On the question of how much 250 liters of water represents in terms of household use, Ma has said that flushing the toilet consumes 6-12 liters, while a complete cycle of a washing machine uses up to 40 liters of water.

In his report, Shih pointed out that in the period between September 2009 and January, among the 12 major reservoirs in Taiwan, only Xinshan Reservoir in the Keelung area, Feitsui Reservoir in Taipei County, and Lantan-Renyitan Reservoir in Chiayi County received rainfall that either surpassed or approached their average annual levels.

The rainfall at other reservoirs has been less than 70 percent of the average annual level, he noted.

Taiwan's annual water consumption is around 18 billion tons, 4.3 billion tons of which comes from reservoirs. However, the current effective storage capacity of the more than 40 reservoirs in the country recorded a combined total of only 1.9 billion tons.

Citing a recent weather forecast that predicted that rainfall in the first three months of the year will be "toward the lower-than-normal level, " Shih said that "we must face the water resource problem seriously." (By Lee Shu-hua and Elizabeth Hsu)