好水源來有您好水源來有您

“Taipei Water Management Branch, Water Resources Agency, Ministry of Economic Affairs” is the only one watershed management office in Taiwan. In 1970s, the government built the Feitsui Reservoir on Beishi River, which is a tributary of the Xindian River in northern Taiwan. The reservoir is only 30 kilometers away from Taipei City and more than 97% of the reservoir water is used for the domestic water supply, it provides the drinking water of greater Taipei area by jointly utilizing the water from Nanshi River and have become the most important water source area in Taiwan. This specified water source conservation area covers the Pinglin District, Wulai District, partial Shuangxi District, Shiding District, and Xindian District of the New Taipei City.

The Qingtan Water Quality and Quantity Protection Area of the Xindian River has set up a special account management board, which is composed of 23 members including the administrative authority, management office, Taipei Water Department, local government and township office, resident’s representatives within the protection area, and impartial citizens etc. to jointly supervise and examine the execution of water resource conservation and compensation programs and the expenditures, etc.

The aforementioned account management board is called by the Taipei Water Management Branch, Water Resources Agency, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Water Resource Agency, Ministry of Economic Affairs (hereinafter referred to as “the Office”), which also be the representative of the administrative authority, and through organizing various subcommittee meetings, site inspections, local explanatory meeting and forums, etc. to review, coordinate, and supervise the submission, expenditure utilization, and execution of the programs of the five district offices.

In order to perfect the water resources management affairs, the Office upholds the working spirits of “taking the initiative”, “taking the responsible”, “being innovative”, and “executing thoroughly” to actively promote all the related businesses to ensure the sustainability of water resources in the Taipei water source conservation area and keep the water clean and safe. Along with the changes of the society and the times, the optimization of local development and conservation of the nation’s water and land resources have become an important subject for the government. Aiming at both looking after local development and ensuring the promotion of water resources protection policies, adapting to the past experiences and setting up future prospects will be the working direction of the Office thereafter.

The water resources conservation and compensation fees were mainly used in five areas, including “construction and maintenance”, “welfare compensation”, “water resources conservation”, “green industry”, and “water resources promotion”. The achievements are listed as below:

Completed 157 projects from 2014~2022 in 5 districts

The Office handled water conservancy projects without damage the natural environment, as well as the maintenance and management for the water resources conservation, drainage, eco-tourism, and other water conservancy facilities, so as to protect public’s personal and property safety.

Constructions: 66 projects

Flood control engineering, drainage engineering, post-disaster rehabilitation, road engineering, environmental engineering and others.

Facility Maintenance and Management : 91 projects

Road maintenance, tap water maintenance, replacement of current pipe lines, environmental greening and beautifying, etc.

260,000 people were provided subsidies in the 5 districts from 2014~2022

In order to make compensation for the local resident’s restrained rights, the Office provided subsidies to the electricity and the residents’ national health insurance, accident insurance, birth subsidy, disability allowance, scholarship, stipend, meal subsidy, elderly allowance, funeral allowance, etc. to meet with the theme to compensate the affected.

5,876 projects applied and approved in 5 districts from 2016~2022

The Water Resource Agency of the Ministry of Economic Affairs established the “Directions on the Bonus of Water Resources Conservation and Compensation Fee for Organic Cultivation, Tree Growing, and the Farmland Fallow” in 2012 to encourage farmland owners to co-exist and grow prosperity with the environment through being environmentally friendly and conserving water. In recently years, publics gradually aware the environmental ecology and food safety issues. The society started to accept the organic agriculture industry, bringing a transforming opportunity for the organic agriculture, natural cultivation, tree-planting and forest conversation.

In order to promote water resources conservation and purification through the tree-planting, forest conservation, organic farming and tillage stoppage, the Office gave rewards to the local residents who transformed to growing organic crops, forestation or stopped tillage for the recovering of environment and promotion of natural vegetation. Total land area applied that meets any of the three conditions measured 3,899.3480654 hectares. The existence of such a beautiful Utopia in Taipei depends on the devotions and commitments from both the government and local residents to the natural environment protection and water conservation. It is expected that all should continue to maintain this beautiful land.

102 cases in 5 districts from 2016~2022

In order to keep promoting water resources conservation and water quality, the Office promoted and cultivated many green businesses in the water conservation area. Besides introducing scenic sites in the water conservation area to the public, the Office also helped promote high quality green industry related products, such as tea leaves, organic rice and Mountain litsea, all of which are grown with high quality water in the non-toxic, nature, and water resource-friendly environment.

27 Specialties in the Water Resources Conservation Area

Tea leaves, organic rice, Mountain litsea, etc.

75 Scenic Sites in the Water Resources Conservation Area

Wulai Waterfall, Hubao Pond, Shiding Thousand Island Lake, Mengmeng Lake, Pinling Old Street, etc.

417 promotion activities in 5 districts from 2014~2022

The Office encouraged residents in the water resources conservation area to join the act of water conservation through holding promotion activities. The activities were to educate the public the importance of water resources conservation and water pollution prevention to ensure the purity of water resource.

Following the increase of population and changes in living styles, domestic sewage starts to influence the safety and purity of water resources. However, cleansers in the market with no certified Green Mark contains a great quantity of “phosphate”, which would cause the abnormal growing of water plants in the water and lead to eutrophication as it is discharged into our sewage system along with domestic sewage water, and then enters rivers and lakes. To prevent the occurrence of such kind of pollution and enhance the water safety and purity in Qingtan Water Quality and Quantity Protection Area of the Xindian River, the Office started to promote the use of environmentally friendly cleansers in 2014, starting from Fushan Village of Wulai District as an experimental site.

During the test period from November 2014 to February 2015, the phosphate inflow concentration was stably kept below 1.0mg/L. Comparing to the unstable phosphate content in the past year, the concentration of phosphate in the test period did maintain in a stable quantity. As a preliminary judgment, better water quality may be due to the replacement of market-sold cleanser with the environmentally friendly green mark cleansers. Hence, cleansers with green mark do have positive effects in reducing phosphate pollution. It is expected through such experiments, the public is able to be educated with manners to reduce water pollution and through the encouragement of green product consumption, we are able to ensure a continuous safe water quality and maintain this beautiful water conservation area.