TNAG-1858-FCO40-2633-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-memoranda-and-minutes-of-me-1989 — Page 201

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

香港立法局—————— 一九八九年七月十九日

19 July 1989

88

Member's motion

WHITE PAPER ON POLLUTION IN HONG KONG

MR. PETER WONG moved the following motion:

"That this Council supports the aims of the 'White Paper on Pollution in Hong Kong A time to Act' and urges everybody to keep our environment

clean."

MR. PETER WONG: Sir, I move the motion standing in my name on the Order Paper.

OMELCO's theme of "Hong Kong is our Home" was developed last week into "Build Hong Kong" and I trust that this motion debate will assist us to make sure that Hong Kong remains a fit place to live in.

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights states in article 12 that it recognizes "the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health" through "the improvement of all aspects of environmental and industrial hygiene".

Sir, in your opening address on 12 October 1988 when commenting on the state of our environment, you said "I am increasingly convinced that one of our major priorities must be to halt this decline and to do more to improve our environment. This will require better planning; major initiatives to control pollution discharges; and large-scale investment in facilities for the proper disposal of sewage and municipal and industrial wastes.

"1

I invite everyone to gauge the efficacy of the White Paper by the way those three issues: better planning, initiatives to control pollution discharges and large scale investments in waste disposal facilities, have been tackled.

White Paper

The White Paper is a first step taken by the Government to spell out its policies on pollution and set priorities. Various government departments are being restructured to carry out those policies. The first issue of planning has been addressed.

The second issue is the initiatives needed to control pollution discharges. I see this as the enactment of appropriate legislation to control the quantity and quality of waste and pollution that we tolerate. The Waste Disposal Ordinance,