The Taipei Department of Environmental Protection was recently called on to remove waste from a sidewalk along a small alley along Dunhua S Rd. When the workers arrived on the scene they unexpectedly found two huge boulders approximately weighing two tonnes each. Receiving quite a shock, they immediately called on several coworkers to help deal with the situation, eventually removing the “largest garbage in history” without a hitch.
According to residents living in the area, the two boulders had occupied that space for as long as 15 or 16 years. A desire to get rid of the boulders had been conveyed in the past, but no one ever resolved the issue. People at the bureau apparently did not know that the big rocks were blocking part of the road. Who on earth put the boulders there in the first place and where did they come from? No one knows. It is assumed that early residents worried about vehicles on the sidewalk making too much noise and put the boulders there to keep them from driving by. Another theory is that the boulders were put there for feng shui purposes — to attract good fortune and drive away evil forces.
Bureau division head Chiu Kuan-hou says that the two ponderous boulders had unequivocally been placed directly on the sidewalk. There was no way the average person could possibly move the boulders, Chiu says, adding that all you could do is walk around them, which means to avoid the boulders you had to walk in the street and face countless perils all around.
Local residents had previously notified the bureau on several occasions about the boulders. Chiu says that was not until several days ago, however, after the police called the bureau to help remove some rocks from a sidewalk, that they went there with brooms and a trolley. They had no idea that the rocks were actually gigantic boulders that could not feasibly be moved by hand. Several of them worked together to fasten the boulders to move them out onto the street and have a bulldozer lift them into a truck. They were then taken to the Shanzhuku Landfill in Nangang District, successfully completing the “rock-moving mission.”
(Liberty Times, Translated by Kyle Jeffcoat)
台北市環保局日前接獲消息,前往市區敦化南路小巷的人行道清除「廢棄物」,工作人員抵達現場一看,竟是兩顆各約兩噸重的大巨石,嚇了一大跳,趕緊號召數名隊員一起處理,順利清除「史上最大廢棄物」。
據附近住戶說法,這兩顆大巨石盤踞當地已長達十五、六年之久,以往曾反映盼清除,但未獲解決,環保局人員則不知有大石頭擋路之事。至於這石頭究竟是誰放的?從哪裡來?無人知曉,推估可能是早期居民擔憂車輛來往於人行道引發噪音,因此擺放大石頭擋住車流,另有一種說法則是風水考量,可以趨吉避凶。
環保局科長邱寬厚表示,這兩顆有「份量」的大巨石不偏不倚落在人行道上,一般民眾根本無力搬動,路過時,多只能繞道而行,為閃避大巨石而走在車道上險象環生。
邱寬厚說,居民表示曾多次反映,但環保局直到日前才接獲警察局請求協助移除人行道石頭,工作人員照例帶著掃帚與手推車到現場,沒想到竟是如此巨大的石頭,根本無法單純以人力徒手搬運,只好先集合數名人員將石頭五花大綁推移至路面後,再由挖土機吊起放於卡車,載至南港區山豬窟掩埋場,終於完成「移石任務」。
(自由時報記者林惠琴)
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