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The problem of Industrial Pollution in Taiwan
      As for underground water, in 1989 the EPA initiated a four-year investigation of 528 wells located in two cities and 10 counties. It was found that 77 percent of the wells had a total number of bacterium over the standard, 66 percent had manganese over the standard, and 46.5 percent had phenol over the standard. Moreover, 6 wells contained too much cadmium, which may cause black-foot disease. Since phenol is a pollutant produced by the industry and not a natural element, the high percentage of its existence in the wells tends to suggest that the underground water in Taiwan had certainly been contaminated by industry. (Chung-kuo shih-pao, 1993/10/02/3)

      Furthermore, a report in 1997 said that in the past 10 years, 30 to 40 percent of the underground water contained too many amounts of heavy metals.

The EPA had recognized the serious situation of the underground water; however, there was still no law to regulate it. (Chung-kuo shih-pao, 1997/12/08/7) The pollution also extended to the sea. A report in 1992 based on the investigation done by the Taiwan Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau said that the sea around the island, especially around the southwestern coast, had been polluted seriously by heavy metals. Among seven kinds of metals, the concentration of zinc was found to be the highest, copper and mercury to be the next. Zinc pollution was most seriously found along Tainan, Chiayi and Kaohsiung Counties in that order.

Copper pollution was most heavily found along Kaohsiung, Chiayi, and Tainan Counties. Mercury pollution was most serious along the coast of Pingtung County. (Lien-ho pao, 1992/07/20/3) It is notable that in November 1994, at the river mouth of Chungkang ch'i in Miaoli County, a large number of migration fish died suddenly. The local fishermen recalled that the same event once happened in 1980 and the head of the village sternly condemned that the environmental protection authority did not give enough efforts to control industrial wastewater. (Chung-shih wan-pao, 1983/11/28/1) This event shows than not only the sea around the southwestern part but also around northern Taiwan was already endangered by pollution.

     When protests against pollution are taken into account, during 1980-1996 water pollution-related events occurred 151 times. Of this, 45 were related to enterprises, 23 related to livestock farms, 23 related to garbage grounds, 22 related to the source of water, 16 related to wastewater disposal plants, 10 related to river pollution, 7 related to drainage ditches, and 5 related to the sea area. (Hsiao Hsin-huang, 1997: 95-126) These protests helped to show the seriousness of Taiwan's water pollution.

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