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THE ENVIRONMENT
Under the application of the 'polluter pays' principle, those who cause the pollution will contribute according to the level of sewage services they use.
Charges will be modest for households. Industry and commerce, producing more polluting discharges, will pay more through a trade effluent surcharge. The government hopes that the surcharge scheme will encourage them to take remedial measures such as more careful use of water and effluent treatment.
Legislation to give effect to the charging arrangements was introduced into the Legislative Council in 1994.
The high-priority programme comprises a deep tunnel sewerage system running from Hong Kong Island East, Tseung Kwan O and Tsuen Wan to a treatment works on Stonecutters Island, as well as improvements to associated local sewerage networks.
Landfills
Most municipal solid waste is currently disposed of at landfills. Three existing landfills, located at Tseung Kwan O, Shuen Wan, and Pillar Point Valley, are to be phased out gradually in the next few years. The development of three state-of-the-art, large landfills in remote areas of the New Territories will provide adequate capacity for the disposal of solid waste for the next 20 years. The new strategic landfills are developed, constructed and operated by specialist waste management contractors to high environmental standards. The West New Territories Landfill (WENT) and the Southeast New Territories Landfill (SENT) - both commenced operation in 1994. The contract for the Northeast New Territories Landfill (NENT) was awarded in July. It is expected that the NENT Landfill will commence operation in mid-1995.
Due to rapid development in the territory, the amount of construction waste arriving at the landfills has increased dramatically in the past few years. Some 15 000 tonnes of such waste was created every day during 1994. The disposal of such large quantities of this waste at existing landfills has led to a critical shortfall of waste disposal capacity, because strategic landfills will not accept mixed construction wastes. To overcome this problem, the capacity of the landfills at Tseung Kwan O, Shuen Wan and Pillar Point Valley has been extended. Arrangements have also been made to advance some reclamation activities, so that suitable construction wastes can be used to create land, instead of using up valuable landfill space.
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The decomposition of refuse produces large quantities of a highly polluting liquid called leachate and gases (mainly methane and carbon dioxide) which may be explosive under certain conditions. As a precaution, studies have been conducted on the collection, treat- ment and disposal of landfill gas and leachate produced at existing and closed landfill sites. The phased restoration works programme developed for the closed urban landfills at Jordan Valley, Ma Yau Tong Central, Ma Yau Tong West, Gin Drinkers' Bay and Ngau Chi Wan was started in 1993. Studies on the restoration of the Tseung Kwan O Landfill, Northwest New Territories Landfills and Shuen Wan Landfill were completed in 1994. These studies have identified solutions to mitigate the landfill gas and leachate problems, and contracts are now under preparation to install and operate systems to restore these landfills. Proposals to make beneficial use of the land at these restored landfills are also being considered. A gas control system was installed at Sai Tso Wan Landfill in 1991 and the system is operating satisfactorily, with no sign of gas migration off the site.