Going with the flow?

When the Taipei City Government's Bureau of Transportation (台北市政府交通局) announced it was to establish cruises along Taipei's Tamsui and Keelung rivers late last month, few expected the watery activity to stoke much public interest in the waterways that have long been neglected by successive governments and viewed as little but festering sewers by the general public.

Even with only three of the proposed seven wharves currently operational thousands turn out on any given weekend in order to take the 45-minute to hour-long jaunts along the scenic, but slightly odorous Tamsui and Keelung rivers. And when the additional wharves are completed at year's end, more are expected to take to the water.

"I've had to speed up my weekend tours of the Keelung that go from Guandu to Tachia just to cope with all the people that want to get out on the water," said David Weng (翁偉達) of the Taiwan Yachting Safety Promotion Association (台灣遊艇休閒安全推廣協會) -- ?one of the three private companies invited by the City Government to partake in the activity. "With the addition of wharves located near the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Lin Family Gardens and Yuanshan opening later this year we hope to see even more people using the river for both transportation and recreation."

The surprising popularity of the activity has both ecologists and government officials alike hoping that the sudden interest in Taipei's much maligned and forgotten waterways will lead to a better understanding of the need for more eco-friendly river management by the general public.

"It's a sad river system that has been neglected and treated like a ditch for almost half a century. Because it has been ignored for so long, few people are aware that if treated with respect the rivers could become an integral ecological part of the city and its environs," said Hseih Hwey-lian (謝蕙蓮), of Academia Sinica's institute of zoology (中央研究院動物研究所). "That's a conception I and many of my colleges hope will change now that people can get on and see the river for themselves."

The Tamsui and Keelung rivers played a fundamental part in the daily life of the city until the late 1950s. When industrial development began to take place in the 1960s, however, there was scant regard for either the river or it's marine ecosystem.

Factories used it as a dumping ground for toxic wastes, antiquated sewage treatment plants meant that human waste and garbage flowed unchecked in the river and dykes and dams were constructed in order to control the rivers' flow. All of which led to increases in pollution and silt, which in turn meant that oxygen levels dropped in large sections of the river and marine life ceased to exist.

"There was a time when I'd have to steer around large piles of floating garbage like I was in a slalom race," recalled boat captain Yang Tsung-ren (楊宗仁), a 30-year veteran of the nation's waterways. "Death and ugliness is the best way to describe what I used to see on a daily basis on the river." Often lambasted by ecologists for inaction, city, county and central governments have taken steps in recent years to ensure that sewage is properly treated before being pumped into the rivers and that garbage is removed.

"The Central Government set up a task force in 1988 to check the rivers' pollution levels. Since then untreated sewage and factory waste has been treated or removed and the river has seen a marked improvement," explained Stephen Shen (沈世宏), director of the Taipei City Government's Department of Environmental Protection (台北市政府環境保護局). "We have regular clean ups that take place on a daily basis. Obviously we don't have the manpower to clean the entire river every day, but we certainly ensure that certain sections remain as clean as possible." The areas in which the City Government's two boats currently operate, however, is limited to areas around the Tachih (大直橋), Huachiang (華江橋) and Chengde (承德橋) bridges.