Guest houses had the poorest water quality among major public or private establishments across the country, according to the results of a probe that was published yesterday by the Environment Protection Administration (EPA).
Among more than 1,200 residential communities, schools, hospitals, department stores, bus or train transit centers and tourist spots investigated, water quality at guest houses, especially those located on offshore islands, was found to be the worst, the EPA survey said.
Chen Chih-ming (
The water supply for many of these hotels and guest houses comes from underground water or water tanks that are rarely cleaned and may be high in bacteria content, Chen said.
Random checks by EPA officials of cisterns and water tanks at 235 guest houses and hotels across the country found that nearly 7 percent of them have substandard water quality -- the highest level recorded among all facilities, the survey said.
Hospitals came in second with 5.7 percent and tourist facilities came in third with 5.6 percent, it said.
In terms of cities and counties, guest houses and hotels on the Matsu Islands under the jurisdiction of Lienchiang County registered the highest level of substandard water quality at around 40 percent, followed by those in central Taichung County with 26.3 percent. Around 8 percent of those on the offshore Penghu County and some 6 percent in Kaohsiung City were judged to have unclean water.
Homestays and hotels with substandard water quality have been ordered to improve the quality of their water supply and meet conditions set by the government, Chen said.
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