2017 National Environmental Protection Improvement Evaluation: Taichung City Wins Excellence Award

The Environmental Protection Administration of the Executive Yuan has released the 2017 evaluation of county and city government environmental protection work, and the Taichung City Government won the "Excellence" award in the special municipality group. The Taichung City Environmental Protection Bureau said it thanks the central government for the recognition. From January to April this year, the average PM2.5 level was 23.7 micrograms, down 2 micrograms from 25.7 micrograms in the same period last year, showing that air quality improvement strategies are gradually taking effect, and it will continue working toward the full-year national air quality standard of 15 micrograms.

Each year, the Environmental Protection Administration evaluates the performance of environmental protection agencies in each county and city in carrying out various environmental protection tasks. In March this year, it announced the 2017 performance results for air quality maintenance and improvement work. Taichung City won the excellence award in the special municipality group, gaining another award from the Environmental Protection Administration after its successful coordination of public and private premises to reduce loading in 2016.

The Taichung City Environmental Protection Bureau said Taichung's air quality is continuing to improve. Based on statistics from the Environmental Protection Administration's air quality monitoring stations within its jurisdiction and data from the Central Weather Bureau, although unfavorable conditions for air pollution occurred because rainfall and rainfall hours in April decreased by about 70% compared with the same period last year, while the northeast monsoon weakened and the southwest monsoon strengthened. However, the average PM2.5 level from January to April this year was 23.7 micrograms per cubic meter, still an improvement of 2 micrograms from 25.7 micrograms in the same period last year.

In addition, the Taichung City Government continues to use the old, stricter calculation method to determine the number of purple alert days. From January to April this year, there were 10 days in total, a decrease of 7 days from 17 days in the same period last year, a reduction of as much as 40%, showing that air pollution control measures have gradually produced results. In the future, it will continue to promote air pollution reduction and move toward the national air quality standard target of PM2.5 of 15 micrograms per cubic meter.