Liuchuan canal post completion of the remediation and environmental improvement project. Image credit: AECOM
The Liuchuan is one of four rivers running through Taichung, the third most populated city in Chinese Taipei, located on the central-western part of the island. The Liuchuan Canal was originally known as the Dadun River before the Japanese colonial period (1895-1945), when it was transformed to resemble a river flowing through Kyoto, with willow trees on both sides. This led to the current name, which means “willow creek”.
However, more recently, local residents usually just referred to it as a “ditch” due to the heavy pollution that resulted from Taichung’s rapid industrialization in the 1980s. A surge of illegal housing was built alongside of the canal embankments and the canal became the recipient of an increasing amount of untreated household wastewater. As the illegal housing was demolished in the 1990s, people moved out of the district, feeding a westward urban development spread that left the old centre depressed. The canals then received even less attention, apart from complaints about their smell.
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Within the 300-meter landscaped section of the Liuchuan Canal, the River Pollution Index (RPI) decreased from 8 (“severely-polluted”) to 3.75 (“moderately-polluted”).