City officials and a KMT lawmaker said yesterday that floods caused by typhoons Nari and Lekima had washed tonnes of trash buried underground for decades into the upstream section of the Hsintien River, which supplies water to residents in the southern districts of Taipei.
Tonnes of garbage from a long-closed landfill site, called Shanchang-ban (伸丈板垃圾場), located on a hill by the banks of the river, was washed away and polluted the water flowing to Chingtanyen (青潭堰), where a pumping facility for water supplies is located, said an official who wished to remain anonymous.
Water from Chingtanyen was directed to the Kungkwan water treatment plant and Changhsin water treatment plant.
These two plants supply water to the city's Wenshan, Wanhua, Ta-an, Hsinyi, Sungshan and Nankang districts and Hsintien City in Taipei County.
Shanchangban is in the Hsiaotzukeng district which is located on Yunghsin Road in Hsintien. The landfill was abandoned 23 years ago when it was replaced by the Ankeng incinerator.
"We collect more than 1 million tonnes of water from here every day," said Hsu Pei-chung (
"Once the upstream section of the river is polluted, more than 30 percent of users in the Taipei metropolitan area will be affected," he said
The officials made their remarks as they took journalists on a tour of the disused landfill site yesterday morning.
The Hsintien City Administrative Office said that Hsiaotzukeng was declared a water source area under the government's protection in 1979. As a result of the designation, dumping garbage, felling trees and other polluting activities were banned in the area.
KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (
"First of all, we need to remove the trash which is already in the water," Chen said. "Secondly, a retaining wall needs to be built immediately to block the trash and prevent it from rolling down the hill into the water. Also, in the long run, we need to come up with a solution to remove the entire landfill. It shouldn't be here, especially as it's the upstream water that we drink."
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