王吉娜實習日誌18: 重建河流的嘗試：工作坊第二天

 重建河流的嘗試：工作坊第二天

    今天我們在桃園沿著河邊散步。回來後，我們聽了一位當地工程師的講座。據他介紹，桃園升格為直轄市的時間並不長，與台北市相比，在防洪設施、景觀美化和公共空間建設方面還有所欠缺。他們曾試圖整治中正公園內的一條溪流，但遭到了附近公寓居民的反對。這是因為在中華文化和台灣本土文化中，流傳著關於「水鬼」將兒童拖入水中溺亡的傳說，家長們因此覺得這條河很危險。

    在與各棟公寓的居民溝通時，他們都遇到了同樣的阻力，計畫最終被迫擱置，直到幾年後才重新啟動。其實，當時許多人希望把河道加蓋遮蔽起來，因為河水散發著難聞的氣味。儘管如此，水質其實一直保持得相當不錯。處理這類問題很棘手，因為身為社區成員，一旦提出整治建議，往往會得罪那些既是鄰居又是店主或餐廳老闆的人。就桃園這條特定的河而言，他們後來才發現，原來大多數餐廳根本就沒有接入排水系統。

    看來直到今天，這些餐廳仍未接入排水系統。相關團體仍在設法淨化河水，例如使用消毒劑來消滅在陰暗靜水中滋生的黑色微生物，但這種做法最終導致河裡的魚類全部死亡。要在滿足民眾需求與堅持環保原則之間找到平衡點絕非易事；演講者強調，要彌合這一分歧，關鍵在於加強教育和提升環保意識，讓人們真正理解保護生態系統的重要性。

Attempts to Rebuild the River：Workshop Day 2

    Today we walked along the river in Taoyuan. When we came back, we listened to a lecture by a local engineer. According to him, Taoyuan has only recently become a municipality, and lacks the improvement to flood control, landscaping, and public spaces compared to Taipei City. They tried to work on the stream in Zhongzheng Park, but the locals living in a nearby apartment building were against it. This was because in Chinese and Taiwanese culture, they have stories about ghosts drowning children in the water, and the parents stated they felt like the river was dangerous. 

    This continued with every apartment they talked to, and they had to eventually end the project until a few years later. Apparently many people wanted to cover it up because it smelled bad. Even now, the water quality is still very good. This is difficult because as a community member, if you bring this up, you’ll offend the shopkeepers and restaurant owners who are also your neighbors. In Taoyuan’s case with this specific river, they eventually realized that most of the restaurants had never been connected to the sewer system. 

    It seems like the restaurants still to this day have never gotten connected, and that these groups are still trying to find ways to clean the river such as using disinfectant to kill black microorganisms that developed in the dark stillwater. Apparently this action had ended up killing all of the fish in the river as well. It’s difficult to find a way to please the people and the public while also staying environmentally true, and the speaker stressed that to bridge this divide is to spread more education and environmental awareness for others to understand the weight of protecting their ecological systems.