Sewerage Systems Office

Today (10th) Sewerage Systems Office held an awarding ceremony for “Young Painter Contest – Imaging Marvels by Painting The Refuse.” Director Huang Yi-Ping of the Public Works Department and Chief Secretary Liao Wen-Ching of the Education Department jointly witnessed and celebrated plentiful results of the “Sewerage Sentries Deepened Campus Navigation Program.” Special thanks were given to Mingde Junior High School, Zhongxiao Junior High School, Datong Primary School and Shezi Primary School for their assistances in promoting the program. Via this “Young Painter Contest – Imaging Marvels by painting refuse,” the SSO encouraged young painters from the respective schools to highlight pleasant sceneries in associating parks of the Dihua Sewage Treatment Plant using their painting brushes, for them to get more familiarized with the Sewage Treatment Plant. Most importantly, all the young sentries are rewarded for their participation in the environment education for all these years.

SSO held a sketching contest on March 4, 2023; students of the Sewerage Sentry League (Mingde Junior High School, Zhongxiao Junior High School, Datong Primary School and Shezi Primary School) were invited to attend. The contest comprises junior high group and primary school group; all the participants painted with full attention to sketch scenic visions of the Dihua Sewage Treatment Plant Recreational Sports Park onto their canvas, putting together objectives of both education and leisure activities. The SSO is scheduled to hold the awarding ceremony for the contest on April 10, 2023. Director Huang Yi-Ping of the Public Works Department and Director Tang Zhih-Min of the Education Department are invited to jointly witness the plentiful results of this “Sewerage Sentries Deepened Campus Navigation Program.”

“The 17th Public Construction Golden Safety Award””Minsheng Water Regeneration Center and Sewer Environmental Education Center New Project”of The Sewerage Systems Office of the Public Works Department of Taipei City Government Taipei City Government  was highly recognized by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, MOL. , won 「Public Construction Golden Safety Award」.

Taipei City won the championship again in 2022 national appraisal of sewerage construction. Taipei is the only city that has won both Excellence and Outstanding Performance awards. Listed among the top cities in all the 3 facets: Project execution and control, Construction Quality and Management, and Facilities Operations and Management, for comprehensive excellence in performance. Today, Director Cheng Pei-Chia of the Sewerage Systems Office presented this Excellence Award to Mayor Chiang in the 2240th Administrative Meeting.Mayor Chiang says, “the pipeline connection rate of Taipei sewerage has reached 81.37%, a national leading index for the construction item. Although the situation encountered for facing the users yet to be connected is getting tougher and tougher, we shall expect the SSO of the Public Works Department to persist in overcoming difficulties, for giving a better tomorrow to Taipei City’s environment. The subsequent sewerage construction comprises 2 key points: total autonomy in sewage treatment of the entire city by 2030 by breaking through user connection difficulties; elevating the user connection rate of the sewerage system to 90% by 2032.Director Cheng Pei-Chia says, although the users' pipeline connection to the sewerage system system has entered a bottleneck period, at the current stage, in addition to continuous developments for overcoming difficulties, a 12-year life expansion project for old sewage pipelines has been initiated as the first in Taiwan by way of excavation-free methods to prolong the service life of pipelines. At the same time, lean management is employed to provide citizen-perceptible services against easy to clog hot zones, effectively lowering repetitive clogs by preventive dredging, enterprise promotion, water quality audit and cross-department cooperation measures, with emphasis given to the existing Neihu and Dihua plants. We further set forth performance-oriented contracts, introduced ROT spirits for equipment renewal, and incorporated incentives for energy saving, replaced Labor Purchase with the concept of Service Purchase, hereby significantly improving the effectiveness of sewage treatment plants and provided citizens with better services and water environments.Director of SSO further notes, Taipei City is the only local government to set up a dedicated unit for sewerage systems, it values long-term construction of sewerage systems; via multi-layer inspection and feedback, searches ideas for breaking through traditional measures, sets forth and executes appropriate turn-key contracts, cooperates with building authorities for reporting illegal buildings, increases incentives and compensatory subsidies, and enforces statutes and versatile penalty measures for increasing user willingness for pipeline connection. Based on key points of national sewerage appraisal, execution and control of each item are accurately carried out for creating livable environments in Taipei City and for gradually achieving goals of sustained developments.

Taipei City has the highest coverage of sewerage systems in the country, its user connection ratio is also the highest. However, in the early years, some buildings, because their septic tank was installed in the basement, still needed to pump out night soil periodically after connecting to the sewerage system and paying the utilization fee; people complained often for being levied twice.In order to resolve the aforementioned issue, under directions of his superior, Mr. Yang initiated a pioneering proposal in 2009 for subsidizing users to modify their septic tank into a sewage pit. This subsidy was enforced since 2010 and continuously reviewed and revised; the range of eligible subjects expanded after respective revisions in 2012, 2019 and 2022, reflected price indexes by adjusting the subsidy amount, for meeting policy goals and citizen needs.In order to ensure independence of technical and administrative tasks, avoiding any concerns of self-benefiting actions, this service was moved to Citizen Service Platform from 2022 for on-line application, for relevant documents being reviewed on justice and fairness bases in transparent administrative procedures, with citizens being aware of all the subsidy results, thereby avoiding any improper actions.After increasing the subsidy amount and providing active guidance to communities requiring night soil removal, the subsidy gradually grew in the recent 3 years: 152 cases had been ratified (46 cases in 2020, 49 in 2021 and 57 in 2022); 225 septic tanks were discarded (46 in 2020, 49 in 2021 and 57 in 2022); and 4,475 users were connected. Obsoletion of septic tanks not only benefits in the saving of septic tank maintenance costs spent by citizens amounted from tens to hundreds of thousands NTD per year for sewage treatment, night soil pumping and motor power; it also resulted in gradual reduction of night soil quantity dumped into SSO’s dumping station; this significantly lowered operations and maintenance costs of the station and contributed in the saving of public funds.After carrying out septic tank obsolescence and sewerage pipeline connection, the SSO has processed 57 subsidy cases in 2022, which generated 1,877 connected users; calculated by 200L/day/person sewage and 2.36 person/household, a reduction of 886 ton directly discharged sewage is achieved every day. This is a significant contribution in the quality improvement of citizen’s living environment, the quality maintenance of public waters, and the creation of quality waterfront environments.