Chan Yu-yeh (詹玉葉), a teacher of Ganlin Elementary School in Shuanghsi Township, Taipei County, believes that newly completed reconstruction work on the Houfantzekeng river broadens not only her teaching experience, but also the views of children raised in the declining mining township.
Last Saturday, Chan helped dozens of energetic fifth graders holding pencils and paper to observe the direction of the river's current and ecotechnology methods applied in the river.
"This is an excellent place to teach. We've never done this before," Chan told the Taipei Times.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Ganlin is one of four elementary schools designing teaching materials based on recent renovation construction carried out along the 6.25km river, the catchment area of which covers 395 hectares of mountainous land.
Earlier this year, Wang Ching-ming (汪靜明), an environmental education professor at National Taiwan Normal University, began to assist teachers from elementary schools in Ganlin, Shanglin, Mutan and Shuanghsi incorporate ecological resources about the river into their teaching materials. The results of the pioneering educational project were first presented at the government-sponsored Ecotechnology Expo 2003 held last weekend in Shuanghsi.
According to Wang, by interpreting meanings behind the adoption of ecological engineering in the flood-prevention work along the river, students will be inspired to treasure nature and further practice ecological conservation.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
"Only if we are fully aware of our hometowns and tackle local problems thoroughly, a set of values ensuring global sustainable development will be established," Wang said.
In the past two decades, due to the declining mining industry and deteriorating natural environment caused by mudflows and floods, Shuanghsi residents have been forced to relocate. In September, 2001, Typhoon Nari struck northern Taiwan violently, illustrating the 11,000 Shuanghsi residents' vulnerability. At that time, torrential rains triggered mudflows in mountainous areas and floods claimed several lives in the township. What Nari left behind were collapsed roads, rivers silted up by huge rocks brought by mudflows from the mountains, and an uncertain future.
After the devastating earthquake in September, 1999, the government decided to carry out disaster prevention construction incorporating environmental considerations in Shuanghsi.
According to Kuo Ching-chiang (
"We took every precaution in order to eliminate possible conditions which would assist the formation of mudflows," Kuo said.
Believing that human dignity and a secure livelihood have precedence over money and material things, Kuo urged Taiwanese professionals in the engineering sector to abandon cement and take into account the ecological and social sustainability of new technologies.
The Soil and Water Conservation Bureau under the Council of Agriculture soon recruited dozens of local residents as temporary workers to strengthen the soil on the mountaintop by growing grass, shortening existing trees, chinking holes and dispersing rainwater.
In the river, governmental engineers assisted local workers, whose daily pay is between NT$1,500 and NT$1,800, with placing wood piles, building boulder embankments and rearranging existing rocks and stones in the river to control the speed of the current. Each part of the disaster-prevention work has its own ecological reasons.
"For example, wood piles will become rotten and eventually be decomposed by microorganisms. Different levels in the riverbed help the current to gain fresh air when it flows," said Wang Shing-long (王幸隆), director of the bureau's first work station.
The embankment construction was guided personally by a devoted Japanese ecological engineer, Fukudome Syubun (
Hung Ju-jiang (
"The natural design can appropriately reduce the energy of current and effectively ensure safety," Hung said.
According to Soil and Water Conservation officials, a preliminary ecological survey had been done by contracted professors. It has been confirmed that the biologically rich creek contains at least 13 species of fish, two kinds of crabs, 19 species of bird, 11 amphibian species, 114 types of riverside plants and numerous aquatic insects. The ecological research also records the growth and decline of all known species when construction was carried out, as a basic reference for future comparisons.
"Disaster prevention, recreation and ecological conservation have been interwoven here by our adoption of ecological engineering," said Wu Huei-long (吳輝龍), the bureau's director general.
The innovative construction in Shuanghsi, which costs only NT$7.5 million, was just one of six examples demonstrating the advantages of adopting ecological engineering in the catchment areas of wild rivers. Wu said that all of these spots have great potential for promoting eco-tourism, further ensuring local sustainability.
So far, the bureau had invented 30 kinds of eco-friendly retaining embankments which can be used in flood-control constructions. Some of them have been listed in teaching materials designed by teachers from elementary schools in Shuanghsi from this semester. Students are encouraged to become responsible inspectors of the township's ecological environment.
Shuanghsi Township Chief Lin Tsan-chih (
"What else can be better than this? Unemployment and environmental deterioration could be appropriately tackled at the same time," Lin said.
Lin plans to hold a festival in September, when wild ginger flowers blossom, to boost the local economy.
"As long as Shuanghsi is a sustainable hometown for us, it will always be a scenic spot for eco-tourism lovers," Lin said.
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