The unfinished construction of pipelines to pump sewage has held back the Taipei City Government’s efforts to clean the Sindian River (新店溪), prompting the city government to draw up plans to clean the river of 70 percent of its pollutants by 2018, with the process scheduled to start next year.
Taipei Sewage System Office Design Division Director Lu Shih-hsuan (盧師琁) said the current situation is an improvement compared with the state of the Sindian River in 1986.
At that time, the Sindian River was considered heavily polluted, with only 56 species of fish living in it, Lu said, adding that, after many years of hard work on the part of the city government, more than 65 percent of the sewage waste pipelines in Taipei’s Wenshan District (文山) are now finished.
As a result, there are now 117 species of fish in the Sindian River, Lu said.
However, as 35 percent of the sewage pipelines in the district remain unconnected, some sewage waste is being dumped directly into the Sindian River, Lu said.
The city government has earmarked NT$136 million (US$4.2 million) next year for the river cleaning project, Lu said.
The project hopes to employ gravel contact oxidation treatment and to purify water through the microorganisms hidden in natural gravel, Lu said, adding that the city government is optimistic that such processes would purify at least 70 percent of the Sindian River.
The project plans, having already cost NT$5.4 million, are to be finalized by the end of this month, and once approved, it is to put out to tender in June next year, Lu said.
Lu said that Taipei’s sewage pipelines are about 74 percent complete, while Wenshan District pipelines are only 65 percent complete.
However, the city government is aiming for 100 percent of sewage pipelines to be connected throughout the city by 2032, he added.
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
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
RSS