To what extent has animal husbandry polluted the water in Taiwan? There is a simple answer given by the annual report of environmental protection as follows: "In the end of 1988, there were 6,950,000 pigs, 1,760,000 cattle, 77,650,000 chickens, and 12,230,000 ducks raised in Taiwan. One pig produces about 4 to 6 times of the waste produced by one person. These animals and the slaughter of them had produced a large amount of waste." (EPA, 1989: 2) However, there was no statement about the amount of wastewater produced by animal husbandry in this report.

     The 1990 annual report by the Taiwan Provincial Environmental Bureau gave first note about animal husbandry wastewater. It admitted that animal husbandry wastewater was one of the major sources of river pollution. However, the number of pigs still increased and the agricultural administrative offices still had no definite policy to deal with the problem.

Since most farms raised less than 1,000 heads of pigs, there was little incentive and it was very hard to carry out improvement programs. (TPEPB, 1990: 90) The same words were repeated again and again in the reports of following years and this reflected that animal wastewater treatment was certainly not easier than industrial wastewater.

     In 1994 the EPA tried to require all farms raising more than 200 pigs to submit their reports on the result of wastewater control. This requirement called forth a protest by pig farmers who gathered outside the Legislative Yuan. More than 10 legislators were involved in the negotiation between protesters and the EPA and asked that the requirement be postponed. (Chung-kuo shih-pao, 1994/05/04/7; 1994/05/05/7)

     In 1995 the EPA estimated that animal wastewater accounted for 24.3 percent of the total amount of water pollution. It also proposed to take up three strategies in programs of river renovation to deal with animal wastewater. These strategies were mainly designed for farms raising more than 5,000 pigs. These farmers were required to accord the effluent standard of wastewater and to set up wastewater treatment equipment. These measures would be applied first to farms located in areas where water sources were already seriously polluted. (EPA, 1996: 166) In the same year, 10 rivers in central and southern Taiwan were taken into renovation programs with a stress on animal wastewater. (EPA, 1996: 169-170)