Though the Kaoping River (
Environmentalists in southern Taiwan say that with the bridge's collapse, now may be a good time for central government officials to rethink river treatment policies and water resource management.
"The river is hanging by a thread," said Yang Ping-yu (
If the central government doesn't take emergency measures, Yang said, the river will eventually die from the dumping of hazardous industrial waste into the Kaoping or from illegal gravel quarrying upstream.
River pollution
According to the Water Resources Bureau under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), the 171m-long Kaoping, Taiwan's second-longest river, has the largest river basin, covering 3,257m2 of land. That's roughly 9 percent of the island's total area.
Because of abundant rainfall during the summer season, the river accounts for as much as 12.7 percent of the total water on the island.
But the abundant river water has been contaminated by illegal dumping and sewage discharge from pig farms upstream. The pollution has left residents in southern Taiwan short of water every year.
"Unlike the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei, we don't have many high-ranking government officials and celebrities living near the Kaoping River," Yang said, adding that she did not believe serious pollution in the south would draw the attention of government officials.
By June of last year, the Environmental Protection Administration had discovered more than 160 illegal dump sites nationwide.
Five of those are considered to pose "an immediate danger" to residents.
Among those five, three are located in the Kaoping river basin and contain hazardous industrial waste.
EPA officials say they have discovered carcinogens such as vinyl chloride, chromium and pentachlorophenol (PCP) along the river.
Environmentalists say that illegal dumping has been taking place for years and that there are probably more illegal sites along the Kao-ping River yet to be discovered.
In July, the EPA's head, Lin Jun-yi (
Illegal Excavation
Environmentalists say that the dumping of industrial waste along the Kaoping is closely linked to illegal gravel quarrying along the river.
According to KESA's investigation, huge holes left by gravel exploitation activities are usually filled in with hazardous industrial waste, non-hazardous industrial waste and household waste.
"To avoid being discovered, they used to cover the waste with a fine layer of gravel," Yang said.
Chen Chen-tung (
"The coastal erosion caused by the decreased sediment load has caused coastlines in Pingtung to move inward," Chen said.
According to Chen's recent research, the coastline of Chijin (旗津), an alluvial peninsula formed by sands from the Kaoping River, has moved inward by more than 100m in the past 10 years.
Chen said that the riverbed has been badly scarred by the gravel exploitation and this has endangered bridges across the river.
"Bridge piers should have been strengthened by gravel on the riverbed, which is now decreasing," Chen said, adding that his survey in 1995 showed that up to 8m of several piers of the Kaoping Bridge had been exposed.
How to bring back the river
Chen said that the former Taiwan Provincial Government once budgeted NT$50 billion for an eight-year-long Kaoping River treatment project but eventually terminated it due to downsizing.
In July, Cabinet officials said that the central government was prepared to spend more than NT$12.59 million to treat the Kao-ping River this fiscal year, and promised that the effort would be one of many to come.
Meanwhile, EPA administrator Lin said that a comprehensive investigation into illegal dump sites along the Kaoping River would be completed and 510 thousand pigs raised upstream would be removed within six months.
"River treatment takes time. To meet future water demand, injecting pre-treated water upstream in the Kaoping River is necessary," professor Ting Cheh-shyh (
The Pingtung County Government is waiting for budget allotments from the MOEA for an artificial groundwater injection (
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