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Secretary
for the Environment, Transport and Works
Dr Sarah
Liao, JP
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We
made good progress during 2004 in waste management by enacting the
Ordinance on the construction waste disposal charging scheme and launching
a pilot scheme on source separation of household waste. The new legislation
on construction waste will provide the necessary economic incentives
to reduce such waste and carry out sorting to facilitate reuse or
recycling. We are actively making preparations for the implementation
of the scheme, including upgrading existing waste disposal facilities,
providing sorting facilities, dry-runs, and rolling out education
and publicity programmes. In our waste reduction and recycling programme,
we are in good stride towards meeting the government's waste reduction
targets. We also succeeded in arresting the growth of municipal solid
waste disposed of in landfills for five consecutive years since 2000,
reversing the trend of 3.5% annual growth before 2000.
The water quality of Victoria Harbour has improved significantly since
the full commissioning of the Harbour Area Treatment Scheme (HATS)
Stage 1. Nearly all water quality parameters in most parts of the
harbour improved in 2004. There have also been reports by non-government
organisations that highly delicate marine organisms such as seahorses
and corals have returned to Victoria Harbour as a result of our initiatives.
Notwithstanding the improvement, our efforts in protecting the harbour
continue. Between June and November 2004, we launched a major public
consultation exercise on the way forward for the second and final
stage of HATS, i.e. HATS Stage 2. With the general support from the
public for HATS Stage 2, we will implement it in phases with a view
to treating all the sewage from both sides of Victoria Harbour by
2013.
The public concern about air quality has become a focus of attention
in our community as Hong Kong experienced bad air days of high frequency
from September to November 2004, which was attributable to increased
emissions locally and at a regional level. The collaboration with
the Guangdong Environmental Protection Bureau under the Joint Working
Group on Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection has
been extensive, involving staff at different levels. The two governments
are now pressing ahead to implement the enhanced pollution control
measures to achieve the agreed emission reduction targets of the four
major regional air pollutants by year 2010. We have also set up a
regional air quality monitoring network which will start operation
in 2005.
At home, we also continued to make solid progress in reducing motor
vehicle emissions. Nearly all our taxis are now fuelled by liquefied
petroleum gas (LPG). Under an incentive scheme to encourage the early
replacement of existing diesel light buses with environmentally cleaner
models that run on LPG or electricity, about 80% of the newly registered
public light buses are LPG ones. We completed the catalyst retrofit
programme for older heavy diesel vehicles in 2004 and the installation
of emission reduction devices for heavy diesel vehicles will become
mandatory in 2005. We have also amended the motor vehicle fuel regulation
to make EURO IV petrol our new statutory motor petrol standard with
effect from 1 January 2005. Our dedicated efforts since 1999 to reduce
the motor vehicle emissions have achieved fruitful results: the roadside
concentrations of particulates and nitrogen oxides have dropped by
9% and 24% respectively as compared with 1999.
In conservation, we promulgated a new nature conservation policy together
with an implementation plan in November 2004. The new policy aims
to better achieve the nature conservation objectives, in particular
to enhance the conservation of ecologically important sites that are
in private ownership. We have identified 12 priority sites through
a scoring system for enhanced conservation. As part of the new policy,
we are going to launch a pilot scheme for the new nature conservation
measures to enhance conservation of the priority sites.
Looking ahead, the year of 2005 will be a year of change and challenge.
A new organisation will be formed on 1 April 2005 by merging the Environment
Branch of the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau with the Environmental
Protection Department. With the support of my colleagues, the new
organisation will continue to strive for a better environment for
Hong Kong.
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| Secretary
for the Environment, Transport and Works
Dr
Sarah Liao, JP |
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