Work to replace lead water pipes in Taipei is 73 percent complete, surpassing the 60 percent goal set for this year, the Taipei City Government said yesterday.
Lead pipelines in Taipei are expected to be replaced by stainless steel equivalents by the end of next year, thanks to the accelerated progress, which moved the estimated completion date ahead by one year, the Taipei Water Department said.
The agency said that it embarked on a project to replace lead water pipes this year, after the issue received wide attention when legislators and Taipei city councilors in October last year drew attention to the potential health hazards associated with lead water pipes.
The department has finished replacing lead pipes in 12,876 out of 17,714 homes and establishments in Taipei, Department Commissioner Chen Chin-hsiang (陳錦祥) said.
The department prioritized pipe replacement work at hospitals, night markets, schools, in commercial districts and along road sections where there is a high density of lead pipes, Chen said.
However, 230 establishments refused to replace lead pipes connected to them, as the pipes run directly through their properties — meaning replacement work would necessitate the removal of floor tiles — or they were reluctant to have water meters moved from the backs to the fronts of their properties, Chen said, adding that his agency expects to encounter about 300 such buildings.
The department is to require property owners who do not want lead pipes replaced to sign affidavits stating that they are aware of the potential health hazards associated with their decisions, he said.
The department would conduct more water quality testing in areas where lead pipes run and continue communicating with people who are unwilling to replace lead pipes, he said.
The department said that it has finished replacing lead pipes in 11,383, or 60.8 percent, of establishments in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe (中和), Yonghe (永和), Sijhih (汐止), Sindian (新店) and Sanchong (三重) districts, but has not set a timeframe on when it would finish replacing pipes in the municipality.
Taipei Deputy Mayor Teng Chia-chi (鄧家基) said that buildings constructed before 1979 often used lead pipes.
If residents are uncertain whether their homes are connected to lead pipes, they can call the department on (02) 8733-5678 to find out, Teng said.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
RSS