Sewerage Systems Office

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.