The quality of tap water in Taipei City is better than the bottled water sold in stores or hypermarkets, the Consumers' Foundation said yesterday, suggesting that the public consume more tap water as it is cheaper and healthier.
The foundation said that, based on the results of recent tests, samples of tap water collected from 12 districts in Taipei City all met quality standards for drinking water, including pH and electronic conductivity, as well as ammonia nitrogen, calcium, magnesium and sodium levels.
“The quality of tap water is good and stable with an ideal pH ... it is safe for people to drink tap water in Taipei,” said Gaston Wu (吳家誠), a chemistry professor at National Taiwan Normal University, who conducted the tests in cooperation with the foundation.
BELOW STANDARD
Wu, however, went on to reveal that two of the 16 bottled water samples tested fell below the standards, while two samples had lower conductivity than tap water.
“Another sample of bottled water was found to contain unsafe levels of ammonia nitrogen, an indication of contamination,” Wu said.
Tap water costs NT$0.013 per liter, as opposed to bottled water, which costs anything from NT$5 to NT$110 per liter, said Hsieh Tien-jen (謝天仁), vice chairman of the foundation.
GREENER WATER
Consumption of bottled water increases greenhouse gas emissions as the bottles are made of plastic and some of the water is imported, Hsieh said.
“Cheaper tap water is not necessarily worse ... and tap water is more environmentally friendly,” he said.
Foundation chairman Cheng Jen-hung (程仁宏), however, warned the public to pay attention to their rooftop water tanks, saying that many of them are cleaned with chemicals that degrade the quality of the water and are harmful to health.
Both Chen and Wu said they would conduct tests on water in other counties and cities around the nation.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
RSS