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In response to press enquiries about the latest progress of relief efforts for affected Tai O residents arising from the flood on September 24, a Home Affairs Department (HAD) spokesman said that the Islands District Office had so far received 547 applications for financial assistance, of which more than 60 cases were submitted by shop or restaurant owners.
All the applications, having regard to their nature, have been expeditiously processed under the Emergency Relief Fund (ERF) and General Chinese Charities Fund (GCCF) by the Lands Department and Islands District Office respectively. In the past week, HAD had deployed additional staff from other district offices to help process the applications for the GCCF and ERF. The Lands Department has also been giving priority to the processing of ERF. To date, the Government has offered emergency relief to 125 applicants and it is expected that the disbursement of the funds will be completed by next week.
On the question of compensation for losses or damage caused by natural disasters, the HAD spokesman said the Government would provide emergency relief to those who were in need but did not offer compensation as a matter of policy. To ensure public money is properly spent, there is a vetting process to assess the financial difficulties faced by those applicants for the emergency relief.
On health and hygiene conditions in Tai O, the spokesman said that after the strengthened efforts of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) and Marine Department (MD) in the past two weeks, the situation in Tai O had been generally back to normal. However, to ensure that individual black spots would not be overlooked, Islands District Office, FEHD and MD had consulted local residents of these possible spots and mounted a joint cleansing operation yesterday and today.
As to some proposals from Tai O residents that the Government should construct a dam surrounding Tai O to better protect it from future floods, the spokesman said Islands District Office had submitted the proposal to the relevant government bureau and department for consideration.
Ends/Friday, October 10, 2008
Issued at HKT 20:35
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