“Foul” is the only way to describe a container-load of around 10 tonnes of rotten chicken, dumped onto a picnic spot on Tongatapu’s scenic Hufangalupe coastline last week.

The maggoty mess has disgusted locals and remained a stinking issue this morning.

Matangi Tonga has found out that the Ministry of Health inspectors approved the dump and that the owner, the shipping agency, the insurance surveyors, and the wharf authorities know about the disposal issue that no one wants to touch.

We found the container doors were wide open and over 700 boxes of Simmons chicken cuts, were spilling out onto the road into the picnic area. At an estimated 15kg per slab - that’s over 10,000kgs of happy maggots, and a lot of unhappy nearby residents.

Stinks

The owner of the adjacent tax allotment Siale Puloka said he had been ringing around to find out who owned the container. “I can’t go back there because the smell is really bad,” he said on March 4.

A weekend fisherman at the area, Nili Tu‘ipulotu, said he saw the maggot filled container there on Saturday morning, March 1. “I took one look and turned around and came back. I don’t think anyone will touch it. I could have thrown up. Even the dogs won’t go near it,“ he said. “There is a lot of dumping at the liku and I often see old tinned fish bobbing in the water. It’s not nice. They throw in everything - plastics, tins, bottles,” said Nili, who was becoming wary of getting sick from eating the fish caught along the coastline.

Health service

Meanwhile, the Health Services Inspection Unit of the Tonga Ministry of Health confirmed this morning it had ordered the disposal of the container of chicken, after receiving reports that the chicken boxes were spoiled and were stinking at Queen Salote Wharf.

Health Inspector ‘Isileli Faka’iloatonga said the container was moved from the wharf last week to an area near Hufangalupe in Vaini to be disposed of into the ocean.

He said that the disposal was the responsibility of the company that owned the chicken, the Si‘i Kae Ola Supermarket, and also the shipping company.

Matangi Tonga understands that a health inspector accompanied the container to the site.

‘Isileli said it was reported to him that the disposal had failed to be carried out on that day last week, because the container truck was too big to reach the front of the cliff.

“The container was offloaded from the truck and workers were tasked to unload the boxes of chicken into a small van. It was muddy due to rainy weather and the van also could not complete the task, plus the smell was reported to be bad. They asked to leave the disposal for another day when the weather cleared up. I talked with representatives from both companies this morning and they said if the weather is sunny today, they would carry out the disposal tomorrow, March 6,” he said. 

‘Isileli argued that the container was not left dumped as it was taken to the area to be disposed of but they had encountered this problem.

Wharf

The container carries the markings of the Hamburg Sud line, with a notice asking the shipper to: “Please return this container clean.”

The agent for Hamburg Sud in Nuku‘alofa, Dateline Trans-Am Shipping, confimed that the container arrived on the Southern Lily V321 on December 21, 2013. A spokesperson said that the insurance surveyor was now responsible for the container, which was incurring a charge of at least USD$20 per day it was held by the user. They were aware that it had been left somewhere near Makeke due to a disposal problem.

He said they noticed the refrigerated container was failing to maintain the correct temperature in the devanning area of the wharf in January. “We advised the supplier and they decided to dispose of it.”

He said the smell at the wharf was so bad that the Ministry of Health was called in to confirm the failure of the refrigeration “at the end of January.”

“It was one of two containers that were disposed of this year.”

The agent said that refrigeration failure was often due to overloading of containers, but a normal load of chicken would hold about 700 boxes.