A total of 165 residents of Xishan Borough (溪山) in Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) have reported vomiting or other gastrointestinal symptoms since April 2, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday, while the Water Department said water samples from a water source in the borough and a local elementary school showed large amounts of Escherichia coli bacteria that exceeded the safety standard.
The Taipei Water Department on Thursday said that it received a report from the borough warden on Monday about dozens of residents living in the same water source area having experienced vomiting or diarrhea recently, so it conducted an inspection that day, which found higher-than-usual counts of E coli.
It said the affected households used untreated spring water collected from their self-built water source system, not treated tap water supplied by the department. As the water was found to have high counts of E coli which exceeded the drinking water standard, the department instructed them to boil the water if it is used for bathing or washing food ingredients or containers.
Photo: CNA
Five temporary stands have been set up in the borough to provide residents with clean water, the water department said on Friday.
The health department said yesterday that it had been conducting a survey of all 594 households in Xishan Borough and had finished visiting 508 households as of 9pm on Friday, and 165 people in 65 households had reported vomiting, diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms since April 2.
Among them, 105 people sought medical treatment, while 60 people only self-observed their health, and none of them developed serious symptoms or were hospitalized, it said.
The health department said Taipei City Hospital’s Yangming branch on Thursday evening dispatched a medical team to the village office to offer medical services, and it opened an acute gastroenteritis outpatient clinic at the hospital on Friday, which is to be available through Saturday, except today.
Xishan Borough residents who feel discomfort or have gastrointestinal symptoms are advised to seek medical attention at the designated clinic, it said.
The Water Department said yesterday that while the water sample collected from the self-built water source area on Monday was tested and found to have an E coli count of 3,900 MPN/100ml, another sample collected on Wednesday had an E coli count of 1,700 MPN/100ml and the latest sample collected on Friday resulted in an E coli count of 2,400 MPN/100ml, all relatively high.
Additional water samples were collected from two other locations in the self-built water source area, and at the local Taipei Xishan Experimental Elementary School on Friday, it said, adding that the two samples were found to have E coli counts of 5,800 MPN/100ml and 1,400 MPN/100ml.
Water at the elementary school is treated with UV light, but it was still found to have an E coli count of 86 MPN/100ml, which is still higher than the drinking water standard, the water department said, adding that it had sent experts to assist in disinfecting and treating the water at the self-built water source system yesterday.
The maximum acceptable concentration of E coli in drinking water is 6 MPN/100ml.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
RSS