Transcript
This is Eileen Wray-McCann for Circle of Blue. And this is What’s Up with Water, your “need-to-know news” of the world’s water, made possible by support from people like you.
In Taiwan, a sharp drought is forcing the tech industry to prepare for water rationing. Taiwan is one of the world’s top manufacturing sites for the silicon chips that power everything from computers to cars to mobile phones. Nikkei Asia reports that the Taiwanese government has asked certain cities with manufacturing centers to cut water use by 11 percent due to declining reservoir levels. One of the largest chipmakers on the island is TSMC. The company recycles about 85 percent of its water, but it still needs an adequate supply for cleaning its chips. TSMC started to truck in water as a precaution, in case the reservoirs continue to decline. The water restrictions come at a time of extremely high global demand for computer chips – during the pandemic, electronics are increasingly desirable.