- 12 -
Maintenance works on hazardous slopes near schools
Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Man-kwong and a reply by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mr Joseph W P Wong, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
With the onset of the rainy season, maintenance works have to be carried out expeditiously on potentially hazardous slopes situated within or in the vicinity of school boundaries. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
of the number of schools which have such slopes within or in the vicinity of their boundaries, and the ownership of the land titles of such slopes;
whether the Government carries out periodic inspections to assess the safety of such slopes and informs the school management concerned of the inspection results;
of the procedure for the schools concerned to file applications for slope maintenance works where these need to be carried out; the average time taken between the filing of an application and the completion of the maintenance works, and the parties which will bear the maintenance costs; and
of the liabilities such schools have in the event of landslides occurring, and whether the Government will compensate the parties concerned for any property losses, injuries and deaths; if so, how the amount of compensation is determined?
Reply:
Mr President,
With regard to part (a) of the question, 14 schools have been served with Dangerous Hillside Orders (DHOS) in respect of slopes on private land. Ownership of a private slope is conferred by the conditions in the relevant lease documents. There are another 3 sub-standard public slopes affecting 5 schools being upgraded under the Landslip Preventive Measures Programme of the Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO).