XN000022-1995-12-06 — Page 49

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$7.2 million in capital grants to livestock farmers for the installation of pollution control equipment;

* $46.2 million on personal emoluments and $3.9 million on departmental expenses to pay for the enforcement of controls over pollution caused by effluent discharges, chemical wastes and livestock wastes.

(b) We will continue to enforce the relevant pollution control legislation vigorously. Specific steps include the following:

(i) The continued application of the livestock waste control scheme in the Deep Bay catchment. We estimate that we will spend a further $230 million on ex-gratia payments and capital grants over the next few years.

(ii) Spending a further $1,300 million to provide new or improve

existing sewerage and sewage treatment facilities in the catchment.

(iii) Continue work on the development of a regional control strategy for Deep Bay. Consultants were commissioned in July 1995, at a cost of approximately $12 million, to carry out this work. The study will be completed in mid 1997.

The resources devoted to the planning stages of the above programmes cannot be quantified because it involves input from a large number of government staff at various levels in different departments.

(c) The Hong Kong - Guangdong Environmental Protection Liaison Group was established in 1990 to provide a forum to discuss environmental protection issues of mutual concern. Both Hong Kong and Guangdong authorities recognised at a very early stage that proper environmental management of Deep Bay should be accorded a high priority. This being so a joint water quality monitoring exercise began in October 1993, whereby both sides carried out co-ordinated monitoring of water quality in the waters of the Deep Bay catchment falling in their respective jurisdictions. The programme has just been concluded and a report will be submitted to the Liaison Group in January next year. The Liaison Group has also agreed that it is important to determine the assimilative capacity of Deep Bay and then to derive a control strategy to ensure that that capacity is not exceeded. It has been agreed that Hong Kong will take the lead on this issue. The study referred to in (b)(iii) above is therefore initiated.