Premier Lai Ching-te today praised the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) for the organization's more than 20 years of dedicated groundwater monitoring efforts aimed at preserving and improving groundwater quality in Taiwan. Following the presentation of an EPA policy report on groundwater quality and protection efforts at today's Cabinet meeting, the premier called for a cross-ministerial approach making use of combined resources to monitor groundwater quality and ensure the health of the people.
Water constitutes an important resource for everyday life in Taiwan, said the premier, and equal attention must be paid to both assuring sufficient quantity and preserving high quality. Water infrastructure is included in the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, with the goal of building quality aquatic environments that provide reliable water supplies, clean drinking water, stronger flood defenses and accessible waterfront spaces. The EPA will move quickly to analyze water quality trends and map out areas at risk, in order that the EPA, the Council of Agriculture and the Ministry of Economic Affairs can promote cross-ministerial measures to prevent and protect against groundwater contamination, and bring about sustainable use of resources.
The EPA indicated that groundwater quality monitoring efforts began in 1995, and there are now 453 regional background sampling wells used to measure background groundwater quality. After 15 years of testing, the EPA has collected over 400,000 groundwater quality data points, which are made public following verification of results.