Two funeral parlors in Taipei have for years been discharging embalming wastewater directly into sewers without any processing, a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City councilor said yesterday, urging the Taipei City Government to improve its handling of wastewater.
Taipei City Councilor Chin Li-fang (秦儷舫) said Taipei’s First and Second Public Funeral Parlors were not equipped with proper sanitary systems and discharged several hundred kiloliters of embalming wastewater — which includes water used to wash corpses, bodily fluids and embalming chemicals such as formaldehyde — into the city’s sewers each year.
Displaying photos of the First Parlor’s body-cleaning rooms, Chin said the two parlors’ sanitary facilities enabled them to perform nothing more than simple sterilization of embalming waste, allowing chemicals in the wastewater to enter the drainage system and become a source of pollution.
“The parlors’ handling of embalming wastewater has gone unnoticed, and residents are unknowingly exposed to unprocessed chemicals and waste,” she said in a question-and-answer session at the Taipei City Council.
The Water Pollution Control Act (水污染防治法) puts embalming wastewater in the same category as regular household wastewater, Chin said, and urged the city government to process the embalming wastewater in the same way as industrial waste.
Chin also expressed concern about the safety of employees in the parlors’ body-cleaning rooms and said the city government should improve the rooms to prevent workers being exposed to harmful chemicals.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said the parlors’ handling of wastewater was unsatisfactory and promised to improve the situation within one month.
“We will conduct a thorough review of the wastewater handling process and set up professional sanitary systems in the two parlors as soon as possible,” he said.
Hau said the city government would replace the sanitary facilities and have the Department of Environmental Protection inspect the quality of the water in their drainage systems regularly.
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