Being the regional center to assist the seven local Environmental Protection Bureaus (EPBs) in the Southern Taiwan to manage their Aqua-Watch programs, this project 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 EPBs to equip Aqua-Watchers 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 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. This year, the Southern Region Project is also responsible to modify the performance evaluation index of the management of Aqua-Watch program for local EPBs and of the National Excellent Aqua-Watch Team. Through literature reviews and questionnair surveys, this project also evalutate the effectiveness of the Aqua-Watch policy and the future development strategies. In order to further strengthen the public participation in the future, we suggest: (1) further extension of Aqua-Watch program to establish a comprehensive, strong public network for river protection, (2) strengthening the organization and operation management of EPBs by incorporating it into the performance evaluation index of the management of Aqua-Watch program for local EPBs, (3) encouraging the participation of universities and schools on water environment proection activities, (4) 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 for environmental education, and (5) involving public voice in watershed management meetings, especially for the priority rivers.

Public Participation, River Pollution Cleanup, Aqua-Watch, Environmental Education