HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 19 July 1989
香港立法局 一九八九年七月十九日
113
MRS. LAU: Sir, in 1988 the Government made a firm commitment to embark on a comprehensive programme for environmental improvements extending over the next decade. The White Paper on pollution reconfirms the determination on the part of Government to make Hong Kong a better place for all of us to live in. The White Paper could not have been published at a more appropriate time. OMELCO's theme for advocating our right of abode cause is that "Hong Kong is our Home". Since we claim Hong Kong to be our home, so much more should we take steps to ensure that it is a clean, healthy and hygienic place for habitation.
One theme underlying Government's overall policy objectives in all areas of pollution is the availability and enforcement of legislation aimed at safeguarding the health and welfare of the community from adverse environmental effects. We already have four principal environmental legislations constituting the legal framework for combating pollution. The Water Pollution Control Ordinance and the Waste Disposal Ordinance both date back to 1980; the Air Pollution Control Ordinance dates back to 1983 and the most recent one is the Noise Control Ordinance in 1988. Despite these legislative controls, our streams and nullahs remain heavily polluted; our bathing beaches close down one after another; dark smoke from chimneys on top of industrial buildings continue to harrass nearby residential accommodation.
In my view, our current scheme of legislative control suffers a number of drawbacks:
(1) Our environmental legislations are complex and not easily understood
by those who have to comply with them.
(2) Some of our environmental legislations are not stringent enough.
(3) Our enforcement measures have been slack, piece-meal, half-hearted
and lacking in objective.
In regard to complexity of our environmental legislations, although Government has published guidelines and technical memoranda to facilitate ease of comprehension, the subject matter remains complex and few people take the trouble of reading them. In this connection, I feel that it may be desirable to simplify our legislations to make them more comprehensible to the ordinary person. At the same time, efforts should be made to reach out to potential polluters to explain the legislations to them and to provide them with guidance as to how to comply with the law. Whilst Government's plan is to regionalize