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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Acting Secretary for the Environment, Ms Christine Loh, on the leachate leak incident at the North East New Territories (NENT) Landfill and the discharge of surface runoff at the West New Territories (WENT) Landfill after attending a public event today (August 30):
Reporter: Could you please repeat your statement in English, please?
Acting Secretary for the Environment: I know people are now clear about what happened in the NENT Landfill, that there is no serious environmental or public health issues. But over the last couple of days, people have questioned whether we have not told people about a previous occasion in the Tuen Mun landfill (WENT Landfill). It is not true. There has been no leakage of the leachate from the landfill in Tuen Mun. There were, however, possibly two matters that confused people. One was the statement by a particular person who came to our officials to say that there has been some pollution over his oysters. In fact, at the time of the complaint, our officers had been on-site and in fact it was not the leachate from the lagoons that had leaked. It was really just the rainwater and, as you can imagine, rainwater mixed with soil, it looked not very attractive. So I think people were concerned that it was not the leachate from the lagoon. The second issue was last year on the 26th of July where our officials were on-site and they were concerned at the time whether there was any leakage of the leachate. But after checking there was no damage to any of the leachate lagoon. So we can confidently say that on those two occasions where people are questioning that there had been no leakage of leachate into the Tuen Mun area.
Reporter: Are you going to take any steps to improve the public's confidence in the oversight of the management of the three landfills?
Acting Secretary for the Environment: I think people are very interested in the management of the landfill. We want to be and I think we are being open and transparent about it. Of course, we welcome you continuing questions, the reason why our officials have first come to explain the technical details, and actually this whole matter is quite technically complicated. So I think now the people understand. You understand that also in the NENT Landfill area that there are no serious public health or ecological damage. We stand ready to answer your further questions. So if you have any other questions that you wish to put to us about any of the details, please continue to do so.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Friday, August 30, 2013
Issued at HKT 17:02
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