On May 24, hundreds of residents in apartment buildings in Taipei City's Wanhua District and in Sanchung City, Taipei County, came down with cases of diarrhea and began vomiting in what had the appearance of an outbreak of an epidemic. Taipei County's Bureau of Health Director Lee Lung-teng (
An investigation by the Tai-wan Water Supply Corp found that negative pressure created by strong pumping during the recent water stoppages had sucked sewage into the water supply system. This incident highlights the longstanding and unresolved problems bedeviling Taiwan's tap water system. The system is supposed to deliver water directly to consumer taps, but in fact, regardless of the size of the community, the water is always delivered indirectly. At the very least, the water has to pass through a water cistern on a building's roof before arriving at the tap.
Apartment buildings also have underground water reservoirs in which water delivered through the public system is stored before being pumped up to the rooftop cistern. It therefore passes through two intermediate stations before reaching the tap. The stainless steel cisterns which are very popular have become something of a symbol of Taiwan.
The Taiwan Water Supply Corp has said all along that water direct from treatment plants is safe to drink, but it doesn't guarantee this to be true of tap water. There are two reasons for this.
The first is that the replacement of decaying water pipes takes time, during which water pressure and other factors inevitably allow pollution to enter the system through cracks in the pipes.
The second is that the intermediate storage of water also causes contamination. Indeed, it is quite possible that contamination caused by intermediate storage occurs frequently, but has not been given sufficient attention because there haven't been any reported widespread outbreaks of disease.
In fact, under most circumstances when water delivered by the Water Supply Corp arrives at a consumer's tap, it still contains quite a large amount of residual chlorine. As long as water vol-umes remain above a certain level, small amounts of bacterial contamination are kept under control and major problems are avoided.
When water volumes fall below that level, however, inspections are called for. It is quite possible that this recent outbreak was actually a result of insufficient water volumes in rooftop cisterns.
When water rationing ends and water is once again supplied in the normal quantities, we may find that the reason the contaminants were not fully eliminated was that levels of residual chlorine were too low. Another possible reason for the outbreak is that the underground reservoirs had not been cleaned for too long. The process of supplying water results in sedimented dirt being stirred up and contaminating the water if there is insufficient residual chlorine to control the bacteria.
Consideration must be given to whether the suffering residents consumed unboiled water. Consumers must be aware that while water supplies are curtailed due to drought, boiling drinking water is all the more important.
Apart from this, the residual chlorine used in drinking water to eliminate bacteria is not effective against every kind of micro-organism. Residual chlorine cannot control outbreaks of Cryptosporidiosis [a diarrheal disease caused by a microscopic parasite in drinking water], which occurs frequently in other countries. Over 400,000 residents contracted the disease from drinking water in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1993, resulting in almost 100 deaths, since the water company there had not been able to filter the protozoa.
The Cryptosporidium parvum micro-organism, which causes Cryptosporidiosis is not a commonly known bacteria in Taiwan. Does that mean it doesn't exist here? Of course not. It exists in untreated as well as treated water.
Water drinking habits in Tai-wan differ from habits in Europe and the US. In Taiwan, we drink boiled water, while Europeans and Americans drink water directly from the tap. I believe that Cryptosporidiosis has occur-red in Taiwan, but not in any previous widespread outbreak. It may be that this recent outbreak is due to the Cryptosporidium parvum, however. That is worth investigating.
Problems created by decaying water pipes -- problems that are decades old -- must be resolved. The Water Supply Corp has for a long time been powerless to deal with the issue. Installing pipelines is a major undertaking requiring substantial funds and the Water Supply Corp often complains that water fees are too low to generate the necessary revenue.
The water supply and underground water systems in Taipei are outdated for the modern metropolis that is the nation's capital. There are a number of environmental and health problems that occur regularly but are being ignored. Outbreaks such as the ones in Wanhua and Sanchung are a side-effect of the drought, but they also serve as a warning.
Sung Fung-chang is a professor and the director of the Institute for Environmental Health at National Taiwan University's College of Public Health.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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