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relocate the cooked food stalls. This is an analogy with the wholesale market. I can see no effective measures from the Department to improve the environmental situation. Do we know of any plans to relocate the wholesale market? Is the plan finalised? And once there is such a plan, will we be urging the Government to strictly adhere to the timetable?
PROFESSOR LEUNG PING-CHUNG (in Cantonese): - Thank you for your question. In fact, you have stated some important facts. As far as I understand, what the Department is doing is rather superficial in the sense that it will merely deal with the issues for the time being without going to the root of the problem. The way to solve the problem actually lies with the reprovisioning of the wholesale market. As far as I know, the reprovisioning will not be effected until 1998. The issue was discussed at Yau Tsim District Board and the Mongkok District Board, and I hope that our colleagues from these two districts can follow this up very closely.
MR. WONG SHUI-LAI (in Cantonese): - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Professor Leung has just answered a question saying that the reprovisioning of the fruit wholesale market probably would be by 1998 and that is the only way to solve the environmental problem in Yau Ma Tei. But the resiting of the cooked food stalls to make way for a semi-temporary or permanent RCP has to take several years and the RCP functions for a very short period of time. I would like to ask whether the Department has discussed this matter with the Government?
PROFESSOR LEUNG PING-CHUNG (in Cantonese): — I am afraid I cannot answer the question on behalf of the Department as to whether they have discussed the problem with the Government. As regards solving the problem temporarily, i.e., to have a temporary RCP to replace another temporary RCP so that we can make the date for reprovisioning of the wholesale market more acceptable, in fact, I do have the same dilemma because we do appreciate the Department for trying to do something, and yet we are disappointed because this is not a long-term way of solving the problem. And in Hong Kong, a lot of things are dealt with only on a temporary basis, unfortunately.
MR. PAO PING-WING (in Cantonese): Actually, Professor LEUNG has covered part of my question. I have one point to follow up. That is in relation to the wholesale market and trade refuse. It seems to me that the Associations have failed to do anything and we cannot take any action either. And Professor LEUNG is also very concerned about the matter. He also thinks that the issue should be taken up as quickly as possible. My question is: is this actually a very special case or rather under existing legislation and under existing by-laws, if all trades dispose of their refuse in this way, are we at a total loss as to what to do and are we totally powerless? If unfortunately, this is the case with all trades, then this is an extremely serious problem for us because we might have to deal with all trade refuse and if they all behave in the same way as this fruit wholesale market, then we would not have sufficient manpower resources. We need an overall review as a matter of urgency. But if this is a special case, could Professor LEUNG promise us that a review can be conducted as quickly as possible with a view to amending the policy, legislations, and by-laws, and also how can we work with other departments such as the EPD in this regard?
PROFESSOR LEUNG PING-CHUNG (in Cantonese): -- Thank you. Let me give you some statistics, and then you will be able to understand the seriousness of the problem and also the difficulties in solving the problem. Perhaps we need to be much more imaginative and creative. Mr. PAO's point is extremely important. We need to come up with a long-term solution. The people of Hong Kong are very fond of fruits, and consumption is extremely great. That is the reason why it generates a lot of refuse. Every day, there are, in fact, 25-28 tonnes of refuse. As mentioned, if this 25 and 28 tonnes of rotten fruits or wooden duckboards are dumped and accumulated from 3.00-4.00 a.m. and during this very short period in the morning. And then during the peak period, there are 34-36 tonnes. So you can well imagine what the situation is like. Since this is a very small area used by a lot of fruit vendors and the refuse generated is extremely big in volume, the conventional method of refuse collection does not appear to be able to solve the problem. Therefore, we should have a special landfill for it. So I tend to think that perhaps we can think along the line of a landfill. We can have a special one just for these people, in other words, fruit sellers. Of course, this is merely an idea, but that will go in response to what Mr. PAO has suggested. We apparently need inter-departmental efforts, and we need some creative and imaginative ideas.
MR. CHAN TAK-CHOR (in Cantonese): - I have two questions. The first one is in relation to trade refuse. What is our policy on this? It has been raised, in fact.
The second question is: some colleagues have mentioned the long-term solutions. But I feel that even in the interim period, we need to do something, and we need to come up with solutions. So the question is: could we reflect this to the Lands Authority because they will have to give a short-term tenancy every year. So could we request the Lands Department to impose some special conditions in the lease to make sure that the refuse problem can be overcome?
PROFESSOR LEUNG PING-CHUNG (in Cantonese): Thank you. We come back to the same point. Today's discussion shows that all colleagues are very concerned about this, and we hope to look for good short-term solutions as well. So let me refer you back to paragraph 5 of the answer. The Department has undertaken to have close liaison with all Government departments concerned and hopes to be able to get the co-operation of the Trade Associations. So that is an undertaking from the USD. So our conclusion today is that the Department should respect our request and should monitor the situation and should, as quickly as possible, liaise with other Government departments and come up with ways to make the Trade Associations co-operate. This message can be relayed to the Department.
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