The Tamsui River flows through many administrative districts in New Taipei City. In the past, it was considered dirty and smelly by the public. In recent years, the city government has used various means to renovate the river and improve the water environment. The serious pollution level of the Tamsui River has dropped from 6% eight years ago to 0.3%. Mayor Hou Youyi announced today that it is expected to reach the "zero" goal by 2030, so that citizens will be happy to get close to the river.
New Taipei City Environmental Protection Bureau Chief Cheng Dawei delivered a report on the "8-Year Turnaround to Sustainable New Taipei City" project at a municipal meeting today. He pointed out that New Taipei City has adopted a multi-pronged approach from source pollution reduction, smart monitoring to technological law enforcement to achieve the goal of an industrial coal-free city ahead of schedule in 2022. The average annual concentration of PM2.5 in 2025 will drop by 26% compared with 2018.
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In terms of water environment management, Cheng Dawei said that through the river basin management platform, integrating source guidance, strict law enforcement and river corridor construction, the proportion of severely polluted length of the Tamsui River has been reduced to 0.3%. 150 real-time monitoring points have been set up for 43 key watersheds and pollution hot spots, and AI water color identification has been used to accurately grasp the pollution situation; at the same time, technological law enforcement has been used to strengthen environmental pollution inspections such as noisy vehicles, so that environmental management can move from passive investigation to active early warning.
Hou Youyi said that New Taipei City has four goals for environmental protection, including cleanliness, freshness, net-zero, and sustainability. Among them, 80% of the "Li Environmental Certification" have joined, creating a record of New Taipei City's "cleanest city" for 10 consecutive years. In addition, through the watershed management platform, the serious pollution level of Tamsui River has dropped significantly from 6% eight years ago to 0.3%, and the target is to return to zero in 2030.
As for "net zero", Hou Youyi said that New Taipei is promoting three major directions. The first is that the second administrative center in Sanchong is about to be completed, with gold-level green buildings, and will create a carbon-neutral demonstration park; the second is the introduction of zero-carbon design in large-scale development projects and construction; the third is the promotion of the Bali Net-Zero Demonstration Zone, hoping to achieve the 2050 net-zero carbon emission target.
Cheng Dawei pointed out that the improvement of the water quality of the Tamsui River is not only reflected in scientific data, but the most direct feeling of the people is the reduction of odor. In the past, some residents along the river could smell the odor of the river as soon as they opened their windows. With the reduction of pollution and the improvement of the odor, people's past negative impression of the Tamsui River as dirty and smelly has gradually changed, and people are willing to use the riverbank as a leisure space. After the water quality is improved, it can also promote the development of water recreation activities in Bali, Tamsui and other places.
Cheng Dawei said that in the future, we will continue to build river corridors and improve the river water environment, starting from reducing pollution sources, such as strictly inspecting factory wastewater discharge, increasing the sewage takeover rate, etc., and strengthening inspections through technological law enforcement, hoping to achieve the zero goal by 2030.
