CASE STUDIES (Taiwan) Prof.

Bonifacio magtibay ESE 150 C2

Sobrevega, France Mico E. CE 2

TAIWAN (Background)

Taiwan is an island country in the western Pacific and east of China. It is also known as Formosa which means beautiful island in Portuguese. It is the nationalist government of China since its settlement in 1949. It is called the Republic of China (ROC) which is a country comprising the island of Taiwan and nearby islands. Currently, the Chinese Nationalist government governs Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. Taiwan is southeast of the communist China, south of Japan, and north of the Philippines. The island of Taiwan lies some 180 kilometers off the southeastern coast of China, across the Taiwan Strait, and has an area of 35,883 km2 (13,855 sq mi). The East China Sea lies to the north, the Philippine Sea to the east, the Luzon Strait directly to the south and the South China Sea to the southwest. The shape of the main island of Taiwan is similar to a sweet potato seen in a south-to-north direction, and therefore, Taiwanese, especially the Min-nan division, often call themselves "children of the Sweet Potato. Taiwans population is 23,174,528 as of 2011. The prevalent form of religious belief in Taiwan is a blend of Buddhism, Taoism, and Chinese folk religion, including ancestor worship. However, there are also large numbers of devotees to each of these belief systems. Christian churches have been active in Taiwan for many years, a majority of which are Protestant (with 2.6% of the population identifying themselves as Protestant. Most people in Taiwan speak both Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese. Mandarin is taught in schools, however most spoken media is split between Mandarin and Taiwanese. Taiwan lies on the Tropic of Cancer, and its climate is marine tropical. The northern part of the island has a rainy season that lasts from January through late March during the northeast monsoon, and experiences in May. The entire island experiences hot, humid weather from June through September. The middle and southern parts of the island do not have an extended monsoon season during the winter months. Typhoons are common between July and October. Boasting over 9,200 convenience stores in an area of 35,980 km and a population of 23 million, Taiwan has the Asia Pacifics and perhaps the worlds highest density of convenience stores per person: one store per 2,500 people or .0004 stores per person. As of 1 January 2009, Taiwan also has 4,800 7-Eleven stores, and thus the worlds highest density of 7-Elevens per person: one store per 4,786 people or .000210 stores per person. Because they are found everywhere, convenience stores in Taiwan provide services on behalf of financial institutions or government agencies such as collection of the city parking fee, utility bills, traffic violation fines, and credit card payments. Eighty-one percent of urban household shoppers in Taiwan visit a convenience store each week. The idea of being able to purchase food items, drink, fast food, magazines, videos, computer games, and so on 24 hours a day and at any corner of a street makes life easier for Taiwans extremely busy and rushed population.

WATER POLLUTION Kaoping River serves as a source of water supply to the Kaohsiung City, several towns, two counties, and a number of large industries (electronic, steel, petrochemical, etc.). It also receives their treated and untreated wastewater. Recent water quality analysis indicates that the Kaoping River is heavily polluted.Because of the poor raw water quality, the cost for water treatment has been significantly increased. AIR POLLUTION Taiwan's air quality ranked an abysmal 35 out of 38 countries surveyed by the World Health Organization (WHO), with Taipei at number 551 out of the 565 cities profiled, boasting an air quality on par with smoker's paradise Lebanon. Atmospheric science researchers armed with scientific equipment sampled the air on the streets and on the mass rapid transit (MRT) system in Taipei and discovered that commuters were breathing in four to five times more dangerous particles than normal levels. Levels of particle matter below 2.5 micrometers in diameter -- or PM2.5 -- and carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were highest in the morning and scooter riders stuck in traffic were the most exposed. Doctors, legislators and environmentalists yesterday said that in addition to fine particle PM2.5 (particles under 2.5 micrometers in diameter) air pollution, PM10 pollution can also harm the body and they urged the government to raise regulations for the standards for both types of pollutants to the level suggested by the WHO. SOIL POLLUTION Companies in Taiwan have been slow to realize the need for soil and groundwater protection. The EPA is now taking the lead by listing the sites of abandoned factories with high soil pollution potential as national property that will undergo land quality management. Plans are in place not only to prevent dumping of pollutants, but also to invest more resources into further inspections of abandoned factories. These measures will work to prevent pollution and keep a check on land quality. NOISE POLLUTION Taipei is really sort of a loud city. No question the grumble of cars, buses and the loud roar of scooters adds up to a tremendous level of noise pollution. On top of that there are horns, whistles and alarms for parking garages, nonstop honking by the army of taxis prowling the city streets, more whistles from cops and parking garage employees directing traffic, garbage trucks blaring their classical music, random fireworks that seem to go off for no apparent reason, and people hawking their wares by use of mega phone advertising. Theyre around in the night markets and various assorted other places. Sometimes people will ride around on bikes selling their food via megaphone, and they are sure to be found wherever anything is sold.

SOURCES AND CAUSES OF POLLUTION WATER The major water pollution sources in Kaoping River are livestock wastewater from hog farms, municipal wastewater, industrial wastewater, non-point source (NPS) pollutants from agricultural areas, and leachate from riverbank landfills. AIR Main sources of noise pollution are factories, commercial and amusement establishments, construction sites, motor vehicles, airplanes, firecrackers, and noisy events such as weddings and funeral processions. Taiwan's rapidly growing factories and businesses, plus the world's highest density of motorcycles, have had an enormous impact on air quality in recent years. SOIL Industrial operations are the primary cause of soil pollution in Taiwan. This and the fact that Taiwan is a small island with a large population have heightened the need for pollution inspection and remediation work in recent years.

NOISE There are lots of sources in terms of noise. Taiwan have a regular waste disposal, garbage truck that collects wastes is one of a source of noise in Taiwan. Taiwan is also known for having a big number of companies and heavy equipments being used which serves as the major source of noise. Others are scooters, fire crackers and shouting vendors. Vendors usually use megaphones for advertising even in the night market so its quite disturbing.

WATER POLLUTION CONTROL The Provincial Government has drawn up a phased water pollution prevention plan which fully utilizes existing manpower and financial resources. Under new "flowing water management" and "industrial waste water management" strategies, county and city governments will be responsible for promoting river pollution cleanup measures; long-term general clean-up plans will apply to selected rivers, such as the Kaoping River and Tungkang River, which are important water resources; and efforts will be made to boost improvement of industrial effluent and livestock effluent, with the establishment of dedicated zones to assist raisers of hogs and ducks to collectively improve their processing of waste water, with the aim of improving the water quality of Taiwan's rivers and ensuring the cleanliness, safety and continued availability of water resources. AIR POLLUTION CONTROL The Provincial Government has adopted the following main control measures to effectively protect Taiwan's air quality: instituting expanded inspection and control of fixed sources of air pollution and urging pollution sources to strengthen abatement; mapping out plans for air pollution improvement on an industry by industry basis, and urging industries to complete pollution abatement projects; introducing control permits for utilization and sale of high polluting fuels; implementing control permits for sale of special chemicals under the Montreal Treaty; promoting a unified system of vehicle emission standards, inspection and maintenance; encouraging the private sector to set up free motorcycle exhaust testing centers; setting up automated online monitoring systems for fixed pollution sources to control emissions; and strengthening control of suspended dust particles to reduce pollution indicators. SOIL POLLUTION CONTROL Despite missing data, the large number of abandoned factories still pending inspection, and limited financial and technical resources, in order to protect citizens from health risks and maintain a high quality living environment, the EPA has continued through with plans to inspect and regulate abandoned factory sites that are potentially contaminated. Implementation strategies and management plans are executed as quickly as possible, while resources are available to invest in carrying out inspections. The primary grounds for screening and inventorying of pollution sites is to determine reasonable allocation of land resources in terms of sustainable use, environmental risk and resources for pollution prevention. Comprehensive consideration must also be given to scheduling and costs of inspection and remediation. NOISE CONTROL The government has set standards for noise levels in different kinds of areas, boosted noise controls, prohibited behavior that disturbs the peace, ameliorated the effects of noise around airports and highways to maintain a quiet environment, and established a noise monitoring system, the goal being to bring noise under control and to retain a quiet living environment for the people.

COMMENTS

Taiwan has lots of industries, factories which is the main source of air pollution. Another source of air pollution is scooters. The residential areas of employees and workers are near their factories and they preferred using scooters. Rivers and other bodies of water is now treated properly. They have a regular clean-up and inspections and assessment on how industries treat and dispose their waste. Their big population is a big pollution contributor. Taiwan is a small country with big population. Even though they have a regular collection of garbage and waste, still its hard to handle such number of wastes. Taiwan is known to be a clean country nowadays because of different sanitation programs and how they discharge their waste but because of their big population, soon a big problem will rise and these programs and projects with concerns to sanitation will not be enough to support the population. Taiwanese prefer to eat outside. They consume instant foods like noodle, thats why there are lots of 7-11 stores in every street. Every street is said to have two stores of 7-11. If thats the case, there are a big number of wastes every day because of instant noodles and other ready-toeat foods and canned goods. Taiwanese uses megaphones for advertising. Merchants were shouting with speakers. People use firecrackers with no apparent reason plus the sound of heavy equipments from factories. Those are normal scenario in Taiwan. They also consider the garbage truck that roams every day plus the scooters. They cant control it because of some legit reasons but instead of using megaphones, a simple board or image would be enough. They also have night market and still they use megaphones. The air pollution in Taiwan is very obvious because of its industries. The government should be stricter in assessing and inspecting these companies and seek for many ways at least to lessen the discharge of toxic gases. Pollution became the consequence of their successful economy.

REFERENCES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Taiwan http://taqm.epa.gov.tw/taqm/en/ http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2007/05/04/2003359365 http://michaelturton.blogspot.com/2011/12/pollution-its-here-its-worsening.html http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Air-pollution-taiwan.JPG http://www.taiwan-agriculture.org/taiwan/rocintro13.html http://www.sarcs.org/new/documents/kao.ppt http://www.filination.com/blog/2008/08/16/the-insane-urban-noise-pollution/ http://scintilatebrightly.wordpress.com/tag/noise-pollution/ http://sgw.epa.gov.tw/Public/En/r_sites_1.html http://sgw.epa.gov.tw/resag/Update_Data/ http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479705002197

Table 1. Population in every city of Taiwan

Figure 1. Air Quality Monitoring

Table 2. Monitoring and Control Standards of Heavy Metal of Soil in Taiwan

Table 3. Monitoring and Control Standards of Heavy Metal of Groundwater in Taiwan

Figure 2. Air Pollution on the City of Taiwan

Figure 3. System environment of the Kao-Ping River Basin, South Taiwan

Figure 4. Map of the study area and the compositions (%) of untreated municipal, industrial and livestock-farming wastewaters in selected rivers.