April 16 - As the host of the “Thriving Yunlin: raising public awareness of river cleanliness” event today, Yunlin County Environmental Protection Bureau calls for “water conversation and pollution reduction”, and presents the ongoing and finished river improvements including sewage system, gravel contact construction, interception and water treatment construction, and the use of biogas fermentation liquid and residue from animal husbandry in crop fertilization. The event received a good public response. Magistrate Chang took the lead in vowing for the effort to maintain river cleanliness by means of water conversation and pollution reduction with the county government staff and visitors.

　This event raises public awareness of the importance of water as a resource and the exercising of efforts in daily life, for example, using toilets certified for water conversation reduces water consumption from 13 liters to 6 liters per use, using washing machines with a certificate saves 50~100 liters per use, and the use of net filters or residue collectors in kitchen sinks reduces waste by 30~40%. To reduce daily life sewage, the county government has been promoting DWV pipe installation. Currently, the installation rate of Douliu City is 58.63%, and the installation is in full swing in Huwei Town and Beigang region. For interception and water treatment installations, there are five currently operating, including “Beigang gravel contact aeration plant, Yunlin River natural treatment system, natural treatment for daily life sewage from Ciao Jhen Elementary School, New Huwei River Lunbei drainage installation, and the New Huwei River mid-stream man-made wetland”. The installations currently in progress include the Beigang River Huwei drainage system and Yunlin River Citong gravel contact construction. For the use of biogas fermentation liquid and residue from animal husbandry for crop fertilization, a program was approved by the central government to apply anaerobically treated swine waste in croplands for fertilization, with 26 re-utilization cases and 113 biogas fermentation liquid and residue cases have been approved. The program benefits 403 hectares of cropland with more than 295,000 tons of swine waste used, which is the highest in Taiwan. The benefit of the agricultural application of the wastes is two-fold: the water pollution is reduced, and the reduced release of pollution into waterway.

　Magistrate Chang, Li-Shan stated that water, as a very limited resource, requires not only the establishment of supplies, but the means of conservation as a more important factor. She also mentioned that more efforts will be exercised to promote the value of water and energy conversation, as well as pollution reduction to raise public awareness and involvement in reducing the sewage generation and maintaining optimal water environment.