To assist and speed up river pollution cleanup, Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (TEPA) has contracted River Restoration Center in Chang Jung Christian University to conduct a series of public participation projects since 2002. The series of projects have successfully establish a public participation framework to involve people in river watch, riverbank adoption, environmental education, volunteer monitoring, and watershed planning. This year, to further assist the five counties in southern Taiwan to manage their river watch programs, the River Restoration Center held a regional meetings to promote the sharing of management experience among the county Environmental Protection Bureaus (EPBs) and maintained the public participation website to introduce public outreach tools developed in the past few years. Twelve monthly newsletters, Callings from The River, were published. A questionair survey on the preference of using Ecolife, a web-based reporting plateform serving pollution communication and demonstration of public participation, was conduct. This year we also assist TEPA to gather public’s opionions toward the cleanup goals for the next phase of Erhjin River Reborn Project. The cleanup goals reached common consensus in this cooperative process was publicized in front of river volunteers of Southern Taiwan in the Annual River Watch Convention. To involve the delegates of the River Watch groups into the watershed planning, we have also held six regular Counseling and Oversee meetings to discuss the watershed environmental issues, four for Erhjin River and two for Yenshui River. The opinions toward the Erhjin and Yenshui river cleanup were further motioned and discussed in the River Program Implementation Committee meetings for both rivers.

Public Participation, Volunteer Monitoring Program, River Watch