The Pingtung County Government said it has been inundated with complaints about the “foul stench” emitted by piles of garbage in front of an incinerator on Siaoliouciou Island (小琉球).
According to the county government, residents and tourists on the island produce an average of six tonnes of garbage per day.
Due to delays in the allocation of central government funds and the Outlying Islands Development Fund, the garbage would not be moved before next month at the earliest, when it will be taken to Pingtung’s Kanding Incinerator, the county government said.
The Siaoliouciou incinerator, despite having been completed in 2002, has not yet been inaugurated.
Including recyclable waste, garbage has been piling up since the beginning of this year and now weighs about 900 tonnes, the government said.
Waste that contained liquid has dried under the sun, and now gives off a terrible smell and teams with maggots.
Liouciou Township Mayor Chen Lung-te (陳隆德) said the township office does not set aside funds for garbage processing and that the task is carried out using a subsidy from the Environmental Protection Administration.
The administration in the middle of last month delivered an official document to the township office, granting it a subsidy of NT$10 million (US$320,100).
Despite the administration’s demand that the township office dispose of the waste immediately, Chen said work regarding garbage disposal is scheduled to be undertaken next month, following a review of the subsidy by township representatives next week.
Pingtung County Commissioner Pan Meng-an (潘孟安), who is currently visiting South Korea, ordered his administration to intervene on the issue.
A troop of sanitary engineers yesterday arrived on the island to disinfect the site, bag the garbage and store it in a warehouse, with Pingtung County Deputy Commissioner Wu Li-hsueh (吳麗雪) overseeing the process.
Chen said that the site is disinfected every day and is not close to densely populated areas, adding that he did not think the garbage would have a severe impact on residents or tourists.
He said the township office would allocate funds for garbage disposal starting from next year to prevent a similar incident from happening again.
Pingtung Environmental Protection Bureau Director-General Yang Chia-ching (楊佳精) said the sanitation engineers are filling 40 to 50 bags of garbage every day, and that they are expected to bag all the garbage in the next 10 days.
The bureau said that it would help the township to ship the garbage to Taiwan proper as soon as it was able to.
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