In the fierce campaigning leading up to the Taipei and Kaohsiung mayoral elections, candidates in both elections are eager to air their opinions concerning the restoration and management of the rivers running through their cities.
Both campaigns, however, have been filled with biased and incorrect information.
The "restoration and management of rivers and streams" roughly means the act of restoring waterways' natural ecological systems from a polluted state and incorporating them into society through planned management and ecological engineering.
Generally speaking, the completion of river restoration should meet the following five conditions: good water quality, thorough treatment of water pollution, restoring the natural vitality of the river, recreating the river's aesthetic scenery and facilitating recreational functions as well as ensuring safety and convenience.
Basically, water quality is the key indicator of the success of water restoration. Respect for a river's watershed and natural ecosystem is in the spirit of water restoration. A river's aesthetic, ecological and recreational functions -- commonly emphasized by both the general public and politicians -- are considered added positive effects of the improved water quality and ecology.
The restoration of the Tamshui River, which flows through Taipei, began in 1969 and has cost more than NT$10 billion (US$309 million), while the restoration of the Love River, which flows through Kaohsiung, began in 1977 and has also cost several billion dollars.
The two cities suffer from a general lack of sound sewage systems and instead rely on centralized water treatment using sewage interception systems. As a result, intercepted sewage water that should enter the Tamshui River goes to the Bali Sewage Treatment Plant before being discharged into the ocean and sewage water that should enter the Love River is discharged into the ocean after treatment at the central Chichin Sewage Treatment Plant.
This method violates the fundamental principles of environmental hydrology because water which should enter a river is intercepted and directed to a sewage treatment plant on the coast for centralized treatment before being discharged into the ocean, thus wasting high amounts of energy.
Several years ago, the Public Construction Commission advocated ecological engineering, which emphasizes the importance of balance between stream remediation and ecological conservation. But this idea is hardly mentioned in the highly politicized river policy debate today.
Also, according to the water quality monitoring data published by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), the water in the Tamshui River estuary continues to remain at a medium level of water pollution.
It is worth noting that the sections of the Tamshui River underneath the Huachung Bridge and the Dazhi Bridge are severely polluted, while only the section of the Sindian Stream near the Bitan Bridge is between low to medium pollution levels.
Also, the Love River downstream remains at a medium pollution level.
In fact, the water quality of the Love and Tamshui rivers differ from other rivers. Neither of them has a stable water source to dilute the concentration of pollution, and 11 water gates have been operational in the middle and lower sections of the rivers since 1987 -- blocking sewage water that should enter the rivers.
These gates are opened only during rainy days when there is a risk of water levels exceeding their sustainable limits. The water gate at Chihping Bridge redirects sewage water to the interceptor treatment system. Apart from the lower Love River suffering only medium pollution levels, the mainstream and tributaries above the water gate are heavily polluted.
Are residents satisfied with this situation? The Dajia Riverside Park at the Dazhi Bridge section of the Keelung River in Taipei is frequently a venue for all kinds of outdoor activities, including the ceremony for blessing dragon boats during the Dragon Boat Festival. But the water pollution level there is between medium and high.
Also, the Golden Love River section of the Love River is also a frequent venue for outdoor activities such as flower lantern festivals and dragon-boat competitions, and the section is decorated with beautiful lights. But after the water has been diluted by ocean water in Kaohsiung Harbor, pollution is still ranked at medium.
In Taiwan, it seems that every recreational park is called a riverside park because this serves as an administrative achievement for politicians to show off. The questions of whether the ecological systems of rivers and streams are healthy and whether the water is toxic seem relatively unimportant. Instead, politicians are obsessed with ostentatious political achievements.
In fact, many people have been taken in and misled by the myth of the restoration projects. This is best exemplified by the inserted pipe rate for sewage treatment.
The rate only reflects the amount of wastewater discharged from households to sewage treatment plants, rather than guaranteeing a sound water treatment system to prevent river pollution.
There are different kinds of wastewater pollutants in river watersheds, and household wastewater is just one of them. There is a high proportion of wastewater coming from unspecified or non-household sources, which cannot be intercepted by sewage treatment plants.
Even if the inserted pipe rate reaches 100 percent, half of overall pollutants still cannot be treated and will continue to cause water pollution.
A truly effective indicator of water quality would be the wastewater treatment rate, which is only about 10 percent in both Taipei and Kaohsiung.
Politicians must have visions for urban river restoration, but they must also respect academic water expertise so that the general public can hear about the core of the problem and can make informed demands.
Yeh Shin-cheng is the chair of the Graduate Institute of Environmental Education at National Kaohsiung Normal University and a member of Kaohsiung's Sustainable Development Committee.
Translated by Lin ya-ti
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