The last section of Taipei’s lead water pipes was replaced yesterday, marking the completion of the replacement project about 15 months ahead of schedule, the Taipei Water Department said.
Following a tainted water scare in Hong Kong in 2015, when tap water was found to contain lead levels above WHO safety limits, a similar concern emerged in Taiwan after local media reported that lead pipes carried water to about 36,000 households in seven Taiwanese cities and counties.
The department at the time said that no lead pipes were installed after 1979 and that a total of 424km of lead pipes longer than 20m had been replaced between 2009 and 2013, adding that the remaining lead pipes in the city would be gradually replaced by 2025.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
However, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) asked the department to reschedule the replacement project and allocate more funds to expedite it, promising to replace all lead pipes in the city with stainless steel pipes in three years.
Speaking at Dunqing Park (敦親公園) in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) yesterday, department Commissioner Chen Chin-hsiang (陳錦祥) said that with an additional budget of NT$420 million (US$13.86 million), the department was able to replace lead pipes serving 17,714 households in 21 months — 15 months sooner than scheduled.
At a media gathering in an alley next to the park, Ko held up the city’s last lead water pipe and gave a new stainless steel pipe to a worker to install it, marking the completion of the project.
“Taipei, being an old city, has a development history of more than a decade ... and the remaining ones [lead pipes] have been replaced in the past two years,” he said. “This marks the end of lead water pipes in Taipei.”
The new pipes are made using corrugated stainless steel tubing, which is also used in Japan, and has better resistance against earthquakes and mild excavator damage, Chen said, adding that the new pipes can ensure better water quality for the next 40 to 50 years.
Ko said the city government aims to install drinking fountains in all the parks in the city, hoping they will reduce the use of bottled water and disposable containers, which are a heavy burden on the environment.
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
RSS