Illegal Waste Dumping Makes Changhua a Paradise: Legislators and Civil Groups Urge Government to Establish Regulations and End the Chaos

Changhua County is a major agricultural county, with its agricultural and fishery products sold throughout Taiwan. Yet Fangyuan and Dacheng in southern Changhua are like a paradise for illegal waste dumping. Legislator Hung Sun-han and Huang Hsiu-fang, together with the Changhua Environmental Protection Union, held a press conference this morning (the 1st), displaying waste collected from Changhua to expose the chaos of waste being dumped and buried indiscriminately in Changhua.

Hung Sun-han emphasized that Changhua is not an isolated case, but a systemic failure of the waste management system. He called on both the central and local governments to face the problem squarely, saying, "Waste requires a systematic solution."

The Waste Chaos in Changhua Is Shocking

Last Saturday (1/30), Legislator Hung Sun-han and Changhua civil groups conducted an on-site inspection of the waste dumping chaos, finding that many farmlands and fish ponds had been dumped with construction waste, earth and stone, sand and gravel, and even furnace slag. The public had long been reporting unidentified waste, yet the local government did not actively investigate, effectively allowing agricultural, pastoral, and aquaculture land to become a paradise for indiscriminate waste dumping and filling.

Hung Sun-han described the waste dumping along Provincial Highway 61 as "shocking." During the inspection, a truck was seen carrying waste in to dump it, and then another vehicle leveled it out. Hung Sun-han said, "Regardless of whether it is toxic or not, we just want to ask: is this waste allowed to exist here?"

Hung Sun-han described the waste dumping problem in Changhua as a "systemic failure." Industry operators complain that there is nowhere to dispose of waste, while residents complain that waste is everywhere. Since the second half of last year, much waste has appeared along the Changhua coast. Operators say this is because northern Taiwan began cracking down on temporary construction waste storage last year, so large amounts of earth and stone, ash, and heavy-metal-containing sludge were transported south. Because the Fangyuan, Wanggong, and Dacheng areas are remote, large quantities of waste were dumped and buried in farmland and fish ponds.

However, after the Environmental Protection Bureau conducted its investigation, the case was handed over to the Land Affairs and Agriculture bureaus. But because the responsibility for governance was unclear, they ended up passing the buck to one another. Most reported cases could not get answers and ultimately fizzled out, and the waste on the farmland remained.