XN000022-1995-03-06 — Page 22

-

20

After that, the Government will notify the Ramsar Bureau to put Mai Po and Inner Deep Bay onto the List of Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention.

The Director of Agriculture and Fisheries will be the co-ordinator and future management authority of the Mai Po Ramsar Site.

Members of the public who wish to obtain more details of the proposed listing or express their views on the matter are welcome to write to the Agriculture and Fisheries Department, 12th Floor, Canton Road Government Offices, 393 Canton Road or call 2733 2356 on or before April 3, 1995.

End/Monday, March 6, 1995

Government endeavours to minimise ACP's impact on environment

*****

The Government is committed to making the Airport Core Programme (ACP) projects as environmental friendly as possible, the Director of Environmental Protection, Dr Stuart Reed, said today (Monday).

Officiating at the opening ceremony of a five-day exhibition on the ACP organised by the New Airport Projects Co-ordination Office (NAPCO), Dr Reed said in the course of implementing the ACP projects, NAPCO and the various ACP project managers had to closely monitor the costs and progress of these mega projects, as well as shouldering the responsibility for ensuring that any adverse effects on local residents from pollution caused by the ACP construction activities were kept to a practicable minimum.

"The role of my department in all this has been to set the ground rules for minimising the pollution from construction activities and to ensure that the right measures are incorporated at the planning and design stage to make the airport and supporting infrastructure as environmentally friendly as possible, when it becomes operational.

"To help us to do this, we have required an Environmental Impact Assessment for each of the ACP projects, and special arrangements have been introduced to ensure that agreed anti-pollution measures are implemented," he said.