7.
The cumulative effects of the Kowloon Bay Reclamation and other known and foreseeable reclamations in Victoria Harbour will also be assessed.
Mr Lee said after the Kowloon Bay Reclamation was completed, the notorious water pollution problem in this area would be over.
Referring to concerns on harbour reclamation expressed by some people recently, Mr Lee explained that harbour reclamations had a long history dating back to 1887 and that since the 1950s more and more land had been formed by harbour reclamations to meet both economic and population growth.
"The Government acknowledges these concerns as very real ones. Therefore in the past 15 years, several major studies have been undertaken to ensure that the impacts of new harbour reclamations on our Victoria Harbour will be will within acceptable limits," he said.
Apart from those major studies, Mr Lee added, comprehensive studies were also undertaken for each reclamation project to address such basic issues as urban planning, landscaping, transport, environmental impact assessment, marine navigation and engineering.
Meanwhile, Mr Lee said he had reservations on the opinions that harbour reclamations should cease because of a lot of available land in the New Territories.
He explained that harbour reclamations provided land that primarily aimed at improving the living conditions of the urban area.
"These reclamations will provide land as 'solutions spaces' to accommodate those tenants affected by urban restructuring, reserve land for strategic infrastructure projects, form secondary commercial centres to take pressure off the built-up central business district and provide land for much needed public housing.
"The land in the New Territories would largely meet other objectives which are
not necessarily the same as those in the urban area.
"We will implement both new town developments and new reclamations in the urban area concurrently. There are no grounds to give up harbour reclamations," Mr Lee stressed.
End/Wednesday, September 20, 1995
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