Water is the best beverage to quench one’s thirst, and drinking water helps the environment by reducing the amount of wasteful packaging used for bottled drinks, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday.
“Bottled drinks often contain lots of sugar, food coloring, artificial flavors and preservatives, not to mention that their packaging is not environmentally friendly,” the EPA’s director-general of the department of environmental sanitation and toxic substance management, Yuan Shaw-ying (袁紹英), said.
In order to increase the public’s confidence in domestic tap water, the administration evaluated the 300-plus water purification plants nationwide and yesterday lauded seven for their outstanding devotion to providing quality water to the public, Yuan said.
Saying that the administration inspects all water purification plants around the country for a total of more than 10,000 inspections a year, Yuan assured the public that 99 percent of the plants in Taiwan pass EPA standards for drinking water safety.
“The purification plants, including Taipei Water Department’s Chitan plant, and Taiwan Water Corporation’s Nanhua, Banhsin, Tunghsin, Shapodang, Shenkou, and Liyu Lake plants, were selected for recognition because of their exceptional managerial standards and customer service, transparent [online] water quality information to the public and stringent water quality control,” Yuan said.
The seven plants are scattered geographically around the country, covering Taipei City and County, Taichung and Miaoli cities, the greater Tainan region and Hualien City and County, providing drinking water to 7 million people, Yuan said, one-third of Taiwan’s population.
Saying that water in Taiwan can be consumed safely; Yuan encouraged the public to take their own water bottles when they go out, but also warned that tap water should be boiled before drinking.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS