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MR. WALTER M. SULKE (in English):—Mr. Chairman, I understand that ozone is supposed to be very much more effective than the methods we are using at the moment; also it does not affect the eyes of swimmers and it doesn't smell. Why don't we use ozone?
MR. SAMUEL P. W. WONG (in English):—Mr. Chairman, in fact ozone has now come on stream recently. Some of the newer pools in Hong Kong commercially run actually use ozone. The UC swimming pools would be planning to shift to ozone in the near future in view of the possible danger of using chlorine as an additive.
MR. LAWRENCE H. L. FUNG (in English):—I am grateful to Mr. SULKE for raising the subject of ozone which I also raised several years ago. That was as a result of one of our study visits to UK where all swimming pools are sterilized by ozone. I believe the Department gave us a very negative result on the usage of ozone and I would be grateful if SUC could revive that minutes and see why the Department was so strongly against ozone and now there seems to be a change of heart saying that the panacea seems to be ozone to kill all bacteria. This subject was raised several years ago. I remember the Honourable Hilton CHEONG-LEEN, myself and possibly Mrs. Grace Ho and the late Ambrose CHOI were on this study tour to the UK. In fact, we saw the one just off King's Road, I think somewhere.
CHAIRMAN (in English): Can you make it into a supplementary?
MR. LAWRENCE H. L. FUNG (in English):—Why is there a change of heart from the Department?
MR. SAMUEL P. W. WONG (in English):—Mr. Chairman, it is not a change of heart of our Department. In fact, most or nearly all of our projects are handled by the Architectural Services Department and they have a lot of expertise there. In their recent report, they are now very much in favour of the use of ozone, that is it.
MR. LAWRENCE H. L. FUNG (in English):—The authority on public health as far as swimming pool is concerned rests with the Urban Council, not the Architectural Services Department. I made this statement of fact with due respect to the Chairman of the Recreation Select Committee.
CHAIRMAN (in English):—I leave that one to the Standing Committee of the Whole Council.
THE HONOURABLE HILTON CHEONG-LEEN (in English):—As a supplementary question, could the Select Committee check with the USD as to what is the principal factor which now leads the Department to strongly recommend ozone for all future swimming pools and also, as a corollary, would it be intended to replace existing pools in the use of ozone?
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MR. SAMUEL P. W. WONG (in English):—The use of ozone has two things that hinder people from considering: the first is it will take up a much larger plant room and the second one is it is very expensive to store and twice as much expensive to operate. The reason why the ASD's thinking goes along the line of using ozone is mainly due to the fact that the use of chlorine gas as additive to the pools or the handling of chlorine itself is very dangerous and it might be forbidden in the near future. That is why our new pools will have to go on to using ozone.
MR. LAWRENCE H. L. FUNG (in English):—There are also chlorine tablets that you don't have to handle gas and there is also chlorine in liquid form.
CHAIRMAN (in English):—It looks as though Mr. WONG and your Select Committee might make a complete investigation and come up with a succinct report.
MR. SAMUEL P. W. WONG (in English):—We would certainly look into this.
MOTIONS
1. DR. PHILIP C. K. KWOK, CHAIRMAN OF THE MUSEUMS SELECT COMMITTEE, moved the following motion (in English):—Mr. Chairman, I rise to move the motion standing in my name:
"THAT the Designation of Museums (Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware) Order 1987 be made under section 105G of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance, Cap. 132".
The purpose of the order is to designate the Flagstaff House in Victoria Barracks, Central, Hong Kong as a museum and to amend the Schedule to the Designation of Museums Order 1986.
I beg to move.
MR. LAM CHAK-PIU, VICE-CHAIRMAN OF THE MUSEUMS SELECT COMMITTEE, seconded the motion (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.
MR. WALTER M. SULKE (in English):—It is unusual to speak on such a technical motion which incidentally is a bit tardy because apparently it fell between the two stools of the Central Government and the Urban Council and one hopes this sort of oversight can be avoided in future. I feel a strong need to speak on this motion in my capacity as Chairman of the Museum of Art Planning Sub-Committee. The Museum of Tea Ware owes its existence entirely to the generosity of one particular donor, Dr. K. S. Lo. Although Dr. Lo has already been thanked publicly, I want again to emphasize how very grateful we all are to him for having made this wonderful gift to the city and I hope that this will be an example to a great many other collectors because when our new art museum