Kaohsiung City Government officials yesterday charged the pan-blue camp with slander for saying the quality of tap water in the city had not improved.
Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Lin Yun-chien (
Lin was supported by Yang Shui-yuan (
At a press conference, Lin stressed that the city government had never told residents that it was safe to drink tap water at home without boiling it. Lin said the city's tap-water quality had been significantly improved, however, due to the completion of three new water treatment plants.
Scientific tests
City officials said that some people used electrolysis of water to mislead the public and persuade them that the water quality was bad. For example, on Monday, some pan-blue lawmakers carried out a scientific experiment at the Legislative Yuan to decompose water collected in Kaohsiung City. Results showed a few lemon-yellow particles suspended in the water.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Luo Shih-Hsiung (羅世雄) said on Monday that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) owed Kaohsiung residents an apology "because residents continue to be supplied with dirty tap water."
A few of the city's borough chiefs supporting the pan-blue camp claimed that the quality of tap water had not been improved by the water treatment project, which was constructed at a cost of NT$11 billion.
To erase residents' doubts, chemistry teachers yesterday were invited by the local authority to carry out scientific experiments demonstrating electrolysis of water.
Faulty test result
According to Lu Tai-ying (
"Using copper and aluminum as opposite poles will result in the appearance of suspensions of different colors. But if you use only platinum, you will see no change of color," Lu said.
The city's Environmental Protection Bureau Director Chang Feng-teng (
Chang said the unsatisfactory quality of tap water in the past could be attributed to excessive chloride that was added to disinfect raw water, but this level had decreased significantly.
According to the Environmental Protection Administration, the quality of tap water supplied to residents in the city and in Kaohsiung County has improved. Last month, administration officials said the water supplier's performance remains steady, after inspecting the newly completed water-treatment plants in Kaohsiung.
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