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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Wong Kam-sing, after officiating at the opening ceremony of TĄPPARK today (May 19):
Reporter: Mr Wong, how can this new facility (TĄPPARK) help our residents in terms of environmental issues?
Secretary for the Environment: On one hand, it reduces the landfill burden because it can turn each day more than a thousand tonnes of sludge previously landfilled. Today, we can have the new facility to turn the sludge into energy, and that becomes a kind of urban renewable energy, and can reduce our carbon footprint. At the same time, this new facility, a green building by itself, it can have various community facilities, (both) indoors and outdoors, that can help educate and inform people about environmental sustainability. So, it is good for the city to reduce our carbon footprint. At the same time, it can help push people to be more environmentally friendly.
Reporter: Would this new facility affect the region? How would the Government implement policy in order to protect the residents living nearby?
Secretary for the Environment: This facility is up to the modern standard. We have a kind of stringent monitoring system involving our EPD (Environmental Protection Department) staff. At the same time, it will be transparent, that is, the relevant data will be uploaded to the website so that everyone, including the public, can understand that it is up to the standard.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Thursday, May 19, 2016
Issued at HKT 18:22
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