HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
————一九八九年七月十九日
香港立法局
19 July 1989
91
the young and old against our traditional neglect of the environment. We have to make everyone aware of how much damage each of us can do in an unthinking moment, to spoil the environment for everyone else.
MR. CHEONG: Sir, as our society becomes more and more affluent, the call to combat effectively and urgently all the pollution problems Hong Kong faces becomes louder and stronger. Just as elsewhere, politicians who are shrewd enough to be on the look out for image-enhancing and vote-getting issues will no doubt make a great play on these issues in the years to come. Hence, I have little doubt that Government will be under heavy pressure both from within and without to provide more and more resources to the limitless expansion of the Environmental Protection Department in the years to come. This is not a bad thing in itself if the need for expansion is well proven. Nevertheless, environment protection is such a sexy subject that we should all guard ourselves against the possibility of being carried away too much by the holiness of the mission to combat pollution. In making our future decisions we must constantly evaluate the relationship between cost, affordability and effectiveness.
Sir, my cautionary note by no means reduces my support for Government's current efforts to combat some of the urgent environmental problems we face in Hong Kong. In fact, with a view to responding to the recently published White Paper in a positive spirit, I urged the Federation of Hong Kong Industries to set up a special All Industry Committee to study the document in detail. Their detailed findings will no doubt be communicated to the Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands in due course. But, this afternoon, because of the time constraint placed on our speeches, honourable colleagues may be relieved to learn that I will cover only a few points.
First, we are in broad agreement with the policy objectives set out in the White Paper. However, we feel that while the White Paper has quoted figures and statistics to show the amount of pollutants generated by the community, it does not go far enough to provide a critical analysis to establish that the trend is towards further deterioration unless actions set out in the White Paper are implemented. It would certainly be useful if such an analysis can be provided to present the pollution problems in their proper perspective.
Secondly, as is recognized in the White Paper, many of the environmental problems we witness today stem from Government's lack of long-term and well- co-ordinated planning in the past. It has in some cases resulted in the over- exposure of residential blocks and schools to the adverse effects of industrial pollution since they were allowed to be erected alongside factories which have