Epic drought in Taiwan pits farmers against high-tech factories for water

Zhang Meixue, head of a farmer's association in southern Tainan county, walks through one of her former rice paddies. Before the drought, the paddy would normally be filled with enough water to simultaneously raise ducks. Now she's growing flowers in the dried-out paddy to beautify the area and attract tourists. (Kathleen Feng)

TAINAN, Taiwan – In southern Taiwan, high-speed trains whoosh past now barren rice paddies, while overhead, the occasional Taiwan-made fighter jetroars by from the nearby airbase – a reminder that the island's storied agricultural way of life often existed harmoniously with the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing bases in the world.

Now, as the island faces one of its worst droughts in a century, both the rural and high-tech are competing for water.