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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MRS. ELLIOTT: May I ask, Mr. Chairman, whether this point could be clarified as I was under a misapprehension. I have another supplementary. I wonder if the Commissioner for Resettlement or the Director of Public Works has noticed that many of the squatters are old and sick people, and some have small children. While we are very grateful that we have a new policy on the supply of water, would it not be fair to consider that these people are not pioneers and they do need roads to walk on, not necessarily good roads, but pathways, to go to these areas to erect their huts?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: The whole of the, if I might call it, Jordan Valley resite complex, including the original sections near town all have standpipes supplied with water from static tanks to which water is taken by tanker lorries. The reason why a permanent supply could not be planned for, although it has been envisaged for a long time, is that we have never been quite sure until recently what our final boundaries will be and, therefore, what the total capacity of the area will be in terms of the number of people. It was therefore considered unwise to start planning a permanent supply until we knew the number of people that had to be catered for. On the question of footpaths, I entirely agree with Mrs. ELLIOTT and in fact the practice of the Department is to put footpaths in if they are not already there. As far as section 'G' is concerned, there is a concrete path from Anderson Road into the area and there are concrete paths in parts of the area already. The formation and development of other paths is going ahead, but it depends very much on the particular positions, on which the squatters decide to build their huts. It is no use putting the paths in until they have made their choice and we know whether the paths are going to lead to their huts.
MRS. ELLIOTT: I have another supplementary question, Mr. Chairman. In the reply to my earlier question, the Commissioner said that priority for resiting was given to people from condemned buildings. Now in the case of the other people who are sent to inconvenient places, why are they given a matter of only 4 or 5 days' notice? If it is so urgent that they can only be given 4 or 5 days' notice, why could they not be treated as priority cases and given resite areas?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: I do not think it takes very long to put up these huts. In fact, I think most squatters are quite capable of putting them up in a couple of days. Insofar as old or infirm people are concerned, we of course do try to provide some transit accommodation as is done in the case of this particular clearance, to which the question refers.
MRS. ELLIOTT: May I ask another question which I hope will not be ruled out of order? I wonder if the Commissioner himself would be able to level the ground in that particular area in a matter of a few days?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: That particular area is in fact very largely terraced already, as it was formerly a cemetery. Some of the people who moved in first, chose what I would have thought particularly difficult sites and they were advised against this by the officer in charge of the area, but it was their own choice that they chose their particular locations.
MRS. ELLIOTT: Mr. Chairman, I agree with the Commissioner for Resettlement that in cases where there are several young men in the family it is possible to put up huts in a few days. I wonder if the Commissioner knows that in some cases a family consists of one old woman, or two old women, or one widow with children, in which case it is impossible?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: If that is the same family I am thinking of, then they were given transit accommodation for some days to give them time to make their arrangements. It may also be one of the families who were referred to the Social Welfare Department for advice on whether they should be given compassionate resettlement.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN: Mr. Chairman, may I ask the Commissioner for Resettlement, through you, whether there are still any illegal burial mounds at the unofficial No. 9 Cemetery?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: I am afraid I cannot answer that question. I do not know that area at all.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN: If there still are, Mr. Chairman, could this matter be referred to the Cemeteries Select Committee with a view to making the area more pleasant to the future tenants? (Laughter).
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: I think we have still got this confused, Mr. Chairman. This resite area is nowhere near the unofficial No. 9 Cemetery. It is a little distance on the other side of Clearwater Bay Road,
MR. CHEONG-LEEN: Mr. Chairman, I beg your pardon, but I sort of read between the lines that this was in the planning board stage that the unofficial No. 9 Cemetery will one day become a resite area.
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: No, Sir. In my reply to the original question, I said that we had no plans to resite people there at all.
MRS. ELLIOTT: Mr. Chairman, may I just mention that the people in that area call it the No. 9 Cemetery and I must ask the Commissioner to confirm it. I myself have leaned on one of the mounds.
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