With the goal to invite the concerned citizen to participate in river pollution cleanup tasks, the River Restoration Center assisted the seven City/County Environmental Protection Bureaus in the Southern Taiwan to manage their River Watch programs to involve people in pollution reporting, adoption of waterfront area, environmental education, volunteer water quality monitoring, and watershed management meeting. There are totally 12 half-day, 7 full-day public participation activities/meetings held in this annual project. With approximately 817 participants, this project has been effectively promote experience exchange among EPBs and River Watch Teams. We conclude that the project has been successfully accomplished the set project objectives. Being the regional center to assist the seven cities and counties in the Southern Taiwan to manage their river watch program, the River Restoration Center of Chang Jung Christian University promotes experience exchange among counties and cities, through on-site visits and consultations, as well as hosting workshop of public participation on watershed management. The center also conducts training course and seed-teacher workshop to assist local EPB to equip river watch volunteers with needed knowledge and skill. In order to integrate the local voices to the decision process of watershed management, the River Restoration Center also held three watershed public participation meetings for Erren River and ChiShui River, both are listed as the Priority River to be remediated. The conclusions of the watershed meetings are presented to the EPA-hosted Executive Meetings of River Pollution Cleanup Projects. To encourage the participation and recognize the long-term contribution, this project hosts the Southern Taiwan River Watch Commendation Conference. This year, the Southern Region Project is also responsible to modify the performance evaluation index of the management of River Watch program for local EPB and of the National Excellent River Watch Team. In order to further strengthen the willingness of the public participation, we suggest: (1) further extension of River Water Program to establish a comprehensive, strong public network for river protection, (2) involving the public forces in every pollution control measures, including recycling of treated swine wastewater to agriculture field as fertilizer, as well as adoption of water purification facilities, (3) involving public voice in watershed management meetings, especially for the priority rivers, (4) holding river watch convention to increase the visibility and experience exchange among the river watch teams in the Southern Region.

Public Participate, River Pollution Cleanup, River Watch, Environment Education for the Aquatic Environment