EPA launches plan to create a clean, safe environment

Starting at the weekend, the Environmental Protection Admi-nistration (EPA) has designated the first Saturday of each month as an environment clean-up day as part of the government's efforts to create a clean and safe living environment and encourage garbage recycling.

Coinciding with World Environment Day on Saturday, the EPA launched a series of clean-up activities in various areas around the island and a nationwide garbage recycling publicity campaign.

More than 30,000 volunteers joined forces with environmental protection officials at central and local government levels to clean up streets and beaches in major cities and counties.

Early in the morning, EPA Administrator Chang Chu-en (張祖恩) and the Taipei City government's Environmental Protection Bureau Director Chen Yung-jen (陳永仁), led a group of volunteers cleaning up the surrounding area of the Hsingan traditional marketplace in Taipei's Kuting district.

The Taipei County government mobilized more than 3,000 volunteers to clean up beaches in the county's nine coastal townships.

A float parade was held in Taichung to encourage garbage recycling and many volunteers helped to clean up the city's major streets.

EPA Deputy Administrator Tsai Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴) traveled to the southern county of Kaohsiung to preside over an exhibition of progress in several major river clean-up projects in the Kaohsiung-Pingtung area.

Tsai also presided over a clean-up contest in Kaohsiung county's Taliao township. The contest was aimed at preventing possible outbreaks of dengue fever and other contagious diseases.