Water is the best beverage to quench one’s thirst, and drinking water helps the environment by reducing the amount of wasteful packaging used for bottled drinks, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday.
“Bottled drinks often contain lots of sugar, food coloring, artificial flavors and preservatives, not to mention that their packaging is not environmentally friendly,” the EPA’s director-general of the department of environmental sanitation and toxic substance management, Yuan Shaw-ying (袁紹英), said.
In order to increase the public’s confidence in domestic tap water, the administration evaluated the 300-plus water purification plants nationwide and yesterday lauded seven for their outstanding devotion to providing quality water to the public, Yuan said.
Saying that the administration inspects all water purification plants around the country for a total of more than 10,000 inspections a year, Yuan assured the public that 99 percent of the plants in Taiwan pass EPA standards for drinking water safety.
“The purification plants, including Taipei Water Department’s Chitan plant, and Taiwan Water Corporation’s Nanhua, Banhsin, Tunghsin, Shapodang, Shenkou, and Liyu Lake plants, were selected for recognition because of their exceptional managerial standards and customer service, transparent [online] water quality information to the public and stringent water quality control,” Yuan said.
The seven plants are scattered geographically around the country, covering Taipei City and County, Taichung and Miaoli cities, the greater Tainan region and Hualien City and County, providing drinking water to 7 million people, Yuan said, one-third of Taiwan’s population.
Saying that water in Taiwan can be consumed safely; Yuan encouraged the public to take their own water bottles when they go out, but also warned that tap water should be boiled before drinking.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai