The Ministry of Environment collaborated with local governments to control fugitive dust along the Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪), reducing incidents by 78 percent over the past seven years.
The dust control program was implemented in 2018 under instructions from then-premier William Lai (賴清德). It has integrated interagency resources to improve controls through hydraulic engineering, riverbank tree planting, and disaster prevention and response.
Deputy Minister of Environment Shen Chih-hsiu (沈志修) yesterday told a news conference that the vegetated area along the river has increased by 991 hectares from 2017 to 2023.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
The number of fugitive dust incidents declined to five from 59 over the same period, Shen said.
Although dust control facilities were damaged by three typhoons last year, they were all fully restored by February, attesting to Taiwan’s climate resilience, he said.
Department of Atmospheric Environment Director Huang Wei-ming (黃偉鳴) said the river is prone to fugitive dust in northeasterly monsoon winds due to farming methods in the region.
Siltation and flooding that washes away control facilities also exacerbated the problem, Huang said, adding that about 2,000 hectares of the 6,553 hectares along the segment of river being managed were prone to fugitive dust.
Hydraulic engineering and afforestation approaches were applied, decreasing the area of exposed land by 77 percent, he said.
The goals are to have dust controls on 91 percent of the land by next year, reduce fugitive dust incidents to two to four days per year and ensure acceptable air quality across the region, he said.
The efforts to restore fugitive dust controls after last year’s typhoons have boosted the resilience of the river area, Huang said.
There was 849 hectares of land exposed by the typhoons last year, down about 50 percent from 1,730 hectares in 2017, he said, adding that the time to restore the land was cut by 80 percent to seven months from 36 months over the period.
The wind speed threshold to generate fugitive dust is up to 10.2 meters per second (mps) this year from 4.9mps in 2017, he added.
Lee Yu-ping (李友平), director of the Water Resources Agency’s Fourth River Management Branch, said that PM10 — an indicator of airborne particles measuring 10 micrometers or less — in the region had decreased by about 50 percent from 2017 to last year.
The improved environment has led to a recovery of local ecosystems, attracting birds such as oriental white storks and black-faced spoonbills, Lee said.
Mailiao Cultural Association president Wu Ming-yi (吳明宜) said the restoration of the river’s wetland has benefited local residents.
The central government should continue to support the local government to protect the river’s environment, Wu added.
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