The
Period of Taipei Water Source Site
 Taipei
began to have public water supply in 1885.
That was attributed to Liu Ming-chuan, the
first Taiwan Governor appointed by China in
the Ching Dynasty. As a reformist administrator
who took drinking water hygiene seriously,
he ordered deep wells be sunk at such places
as the North Gate Street（Po-Ai Road today）,
the Masonry Street（Henyang Road today）, and
the West Gate Street to tap ground water for
public use.
In the early stage of Taiwan（1895-1945）,
planning of modern water facilities was
initiated based on the infrastructure completed
under Liu’s administration. In August 1896,
a Scottish engineer William K. Burton was
engaged by the Taiwan Government to conduct
a survey of Taiwan’s sanitary engineering
and Taipei’s water construction, with the
assistance of Hamano Yashiro, a technician
from the Taiwan Government Office. Pursuant
to Mr. Burton’s suggestion, construction
of a water intake unit at the Hsintien Creek
and purification plant at the foot of Kuanying
Hill nearby commenced in 1907. Treated water
was pumped upward to a distribution reservoir
on the Hill, where water was supplied via
natural, gravitational force to households.
In 1908, the water intake and a pump house
（both of the building and the equipment
installation）were finished. The year ensuing,
all service piping, the purification plant,
and the distribution reservoir became ready
and began to produce 20,000ton potable water
daily to serve 120,000 users in Taipei.
Named the Taipei Water Source Site Slow
Filter, the plant marked the inception of
the city’s march into the era of modern
water supply system.
 In
early 1951, the Taipei City Government set
up the Taipei City Water Source Expansion
Project Promotion Committee headed by Mayor
Wu Sanlien. An Expansion Project Office
was established in April that year, and
Mr. Fan Chunyi, a specialist of the Taiwan
Provincial Reconstruction Department, was
commissioned to take charge of design and
construction. Facilities including 1 mixing
and coagulation basin, 2 sedimentation basins,
and 4 rapid filters, with a combined production
capacity of 20,000 ton a day, were completed
in February the ensuing year. The year 1974
marked the beginning of the Taipei Area
Water Supply Expansion Plan, Phase Ⅲ. After
the slow filter at the Taipei Water Source
Site was dismantled, new slant pipes were
added to sedimentation basins to accelerate
coagulation and sedimentation effect. A
replacement of filtration medium with garnet
for the rapid filters, meanwhile, uplifted
their daily production to 50,000 ton.
|
