TNAG-1856-FCO40-2631-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-memoranda-and-minutes-of-me-1989 — Page 151

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

28 June 1989

香港立法局 ——一九八九年六月二十八日

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the Jordan Valley nullah will be decked as part of the Urban Council project, Jordan Valley Recreation Ground Phase II, tentatively scheduled to start in 1991 for completion in 1993.

Interim measures in the summer to minimize the smell nuisance caused to the public are not carried out as such, although maintenance and cleansing is a year round programme and described in more detail in (a) of paragraph 5. In summer, heavy rain acts as a natural cleansing agent by flushing.

The smell nuisance in nullahs is mainly caused by organic pollutants which are discharged into them from various sources domestic, agricultural and industrial. It will not be fully abated until these discharges are properly controlled. The general silting of nullahs also contributes to the smell problem, albeit to a lesser extent.

The measures taken to abate the smell nuisance at the two nullahs at Jordan Valley and Tsui Ping Road are:

(a) most major nullahs, including these two in Kwun Tong, are desilted annually by Civil Engineering Services Department (CESD). This is a recurrent exercise because organic sediments will accumulate again once the dredging has stopped. This work is also carried out to mitigate flooding as nullahs are part of the land drainage system built to take away stormwater runoff. In this financial year, CESD has obtained $4.5 million to carry out desilting especially for smell abatement of this sum, $0.35 million will be spent in the Jordan Valley and Tsui Ping Road nullahs. The open section of the Jordan Valley nullah has just been cleaned as part of these works and desilting of the decked section down stream will commence shortly;

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(b) substantial improvements are being planned to the public sewerage in east Kowloon to prevent uncontrolled discharges of foul waters, including discharges into the two nullahs in Kwun Tong. A sewage management plan for this purpose is now being devised by consultants whose final report on the works proposed will be submitted at the end of this month. These works are expected to cost nearly $1.0 billion and work could begin on them in 1990 if funds can be made available; and

(c) controls on both domestic and industrial effluents to prevent their discharge through expedient connections into the nullahs will also be imposed when, in 1991, the Victoria Harbour Water Control Zone is declared under the Water Pollution Control Ordinance (Cap. 358).