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Following is a question by the Hon Elsie Tu and an oral reply by the Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands, Mr Bowen Leung, in the Provisional Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question :

Will the Government inform this Council of the action being taken to prevent illegal dumping of waste materials in the New Territories and to clear up those areas which have become unsightly and are causing environmental hazard to residents?

Reply :

Madam President,

We encourage waste producers to dispose of their waste in a legal and environmentally sound way by providing landfills, public filling areas and public fill barging points. These are in addition to the comprehensive waste collection service for domestic waste provided by the Provisional Municipal Councils. We control the illegal dumping of waste using a number of legislative provisions. These include the Public Cleansing and Prevention of Nuisance By-laws under the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance; the Waste Disposal Ordinance; the Crown Land Ordinance; the Town Planning Ordinance; and the Summary Offences Ordinance.

The actions taken to clean up the unsightly spots include removal of waste from some of the sites and, where appropriate, fencing off the sites to prevent further dumping. The Environmental Protection Department, the Police and other departments concerned have also stepped up surveillance and monitoring to better prevent and detect offences in future.

Nonetheless, in some instances we accept offenders have evaded our actions and that the existing procedures for prosecution can be cumbersome. In the short term the Director of Environmental Protection is co-ordinating efforts to provide faster clean up arrangements, improved methods of locating illegal dumping sites and more effective enforcement of legislative controls. In the longer term, we will conduct a comprehensive review of the relevant administrative, legislative and enforcement measures to optimise control and enforcement in future.

End/Wednesday, April 1, 1998

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