Kaohsiung Sanitary Storm Project

“Helping Taiwan Decrease Water Pollution”

What's the best way for a Taiwanese city to develop cost-effective sanitary pipelines that reduce water pollution?

Since 1997, MWH has worked closely with Taiwanese officials to accomplish that goal in the city of Kaohsiung.

Currently, only about 3-5 percent of Taiwanese households are connected to a sanitary sewer system. The remainder of the household sewage is untreated.

This sewage is flowing into the storm sewer pipeline and causing pollution to Taiwan’s rivers. To address the problem, the government is investing approximately US $15 billion over the next 20 years to repair and build new sanitary pipelines, and improve the environment.

Kaohsiung Project

In Kaohsiung, MWH is designing and supervising the construction of new 72-km-long pipelines. The five-year project presents a number of technical challenges.

At certain points, the MWH team is using the long distance underground “pipe jacking” method to connect pipelines as long as 400m. This is twice the normal distance.

As the pipeline is under construction, MWH is using rubber dams as a temporary, yet cost-effective solution to prevent further pollution in the Love River.