Claims by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators that Kaohsiung's tap water might have long-term negative health effects were nothing more than an election campaign trick, Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said yesterday.
He said there was no evidence to support these claims, and that they were meant as an attack on the city's image.
He was responding to accusations made by KMT legislators from Kaohsiung in the Legislative Yuan yesterday morning. They described the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) water-quality improvement project, which was completed late last year, as a failure.
"It's normal for the two political camps to compete with each other, especially with the election around the corner, but they should not have made up information, which will only cause panic among the public and hurt Kaohsiung's image," Hsieh said.
The DPP government budgeted NT$15 billion in 2001 to improve the quality of tap water in Kaohsiung. The project included moving intake points in Kaoping River upstream and building three advanced treatment plants.
Two weeks ago, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) announced that Kaohsiung's water had passed all their health tests.
KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) yesterday claimed that 75 percent of Kaohsiung's residents -- including her family -- were still buying drinking water from street vendors or vending machines.
KMT Legislator Luo Shih-Hsiung (羅世雄) said that the new facilities treat less than 500,000 liters of water, which accounts for less than a third of the city's daily water demand of 1.3 million liters.
"The quality of two-thirds of Kaohsiung's tap-water supply remains unimproved," Luo said.
They said the use of sodium hydroxide to soften water would increase the potential health threat, and that the dioxin level of sludge in Kaoping River was too high.
"The KMT is just envious of the DPP's achievement," DPP caucus secretary-general Tsai Huang-liang (
According to the EPA, national standards for tap water do not specify a maximum allowable level of sodium. However, two samples of tap water that were taken last Monday had sodium levels of 37.0ppm and 37.5ppm, which is lower than the level of 200ppm set by the World Health Organization.
As for the dioxin level, the city's environmental officials said that they had sampled water in Kaohsiung River in September last year, and these samples met national standards set in both Japan and the US.
Regulations in Taiwan do not list an acceptable level of dioxin.
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