Illegal waste dumping destroys Taoyuan's algal reefs

Want China Times, Huang Yi-ying and Staff Reporter 2014-01-25

A dead pig in a river near the Guanyin Industrial Park. The industrial waste
 dumped in the river is reportedly so toxic that even the bacteria that would
normally cause a dead animal to decompose cannot survive. (Photo/Chen Hsin-han)

Illegal dumping of industrial waste over the past three decades since the Guanyin Industrial Park was inaugurated in 1983 has severely affected the ecosytem of algal reefs in Taoyuan in northern Taiwan, where local rivers have turned black due to pollution.

The body of a pig that drowned in one of the rivers saw no signs of decomposition for a week, as bacteria that would normally break down the remains have been killed by the pollution, our sister paper China Times reported.

Pan Chung-cheng, the director of an environmental protection organization in Taoyuan, said the industrial park was cursed as soon as it started polluting. "For 30 years, the factories have not stopped discharging liquid industrial waste into rivers since 1983. All the rivers are black and nothing can survive in there," he said.

Taiwan counts less than 50 kilometers of algal reef along its 1,500 kilometers of coastline. Taoyuan county accounts for just over half of this, but the majority has been destroyed by pollution. Though the government belatedly became aware of the importance of the ecosystem two years ago, work to turn the situation around has been launched too late and no matter how much factories are fined, the algal reefs are dying out.

Furthermore, factories are still illegally dumping waste. "The government has long been corrupted by local companies and the people here have lost hope of fighting both the government and the factories," said Pan.

The Guanyin Industrial Park has 333 legal companies on 632 hectares of land as well as numerous others which have settled there illegally. But all of the companies, legal and illegal, pollute the country in similar ways.

Yeh Si-kuei, an environmental activist who often takes part in raids to catch illegal dumping, said local mafia often protect the perpetrators of illegal waste dumping.

Yeh said the rivers they are trying to protect used to be full of fish. But now the rivers are black, and nothing can live in them.