Wandan Main Drain turns into a river of sewage, environmental groups angrily criticize the 250.7 billion forward-looking water management plan for not tackling pollution

The forward-looking plan is being hotly debated in the Legislative Yuan, and reactions are not limited to Taipei - voices of doubt are also widespread across southern Taiwan. Civic groups including the Blue Donggang River Conservation Association, the Meinong Hometown Care Association, the Tainan Community University, and the Citizens of the Earth Foundation held a press conference and an all-day forum on May 15 to conduct in-depth discussion and review of the contents of the forward-looking plan.

These groups, which have long cared about water resources, question whether the 882.5 billion forward-looking plan, without careful planning and full discussion, is about to appear in the form of a special ordinance and be forced through. Take the "water environment" as an example: Fengshan Reservoir, which serves as a backup water source for Kaohsiung City, draws from the Donggang River, which is severely polluted by livestock wastewater, yet the water environment construction plan allocating as much as 250.7 billion yuan has no concrete scheme to improve river pollution. In response, the groups jointly called on the government to make "improving river water quality" the primary goal, because only by returning clean water sources to all citizens can it truly be called forward-looking!