TNAG-1363-FCO40-1809-Hong-Kong-Hansard-reports-and-minutes-of-the-meetings-of-the-1985 — Page 97

3.

2 -

These electrostatic precipitators are expensive;

they are estimated to cost about $130 million. The question

of whether interim measures involving costs of this

magnitude can be justified has been extensively discussed

within the Government and I expect an early decision as to

whether the upgrading of the project should be proposed to

the Public Works Sub-Committee.

4.

If it is decided to go ahead with the precipitators

work should start in the 1986/87 financial year and some

improvement would be achieved almost immediately as the

first of the two plants would be closed down for the

installation work to begin. The work should be completed

by 1990. On the other hand a decision not to instal

precipitators and to rely on transfer stations would mean

that the incinerators could not be closed down until 1989

at the earliest, although some improvement might be effected

before then by the use of barges to transport refuse to the

controlled tips.