1995 — Page 107

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

I suggest that the Government should introduce a licensing system for suppliers of seawater to make sure that suppliers must get a licence from Urban Council. First, it will ensure that water supplied from these suppliers will be up to specific hygienic standards. Secondly, it can guarantee that should there be incidents of food poisoning as a result of consuming such seafood, the Government can also take remedial action and trace the culprit. By so doing, it can have a deterrent effect on those irresponsible or unscrupulous suppliers. Apart from legislation, the Government should consider examining water quality in different areas, issuing a black spot list on contaminated water and stopping water suppliers from drawing seawater at those black spot areas so as to safeguard public health. EPD should also regularly announce water quality indicators so that citizens, suppliers and restaurants will have updated information on where not to draw untreated water to keep seafood as a matter of convenience.

Finally, I would like to point out that although the Government has taken remedial action (for instance, guardrails around typhoon shelters have been erected) that has not been effective because suppliers cut the rails and continue to get seawater from these areas. The authority concerned can take the initiative to enact legislation to protect public health.

MR. WONG KWOK-HING (in Cantonese):—I support the spirit of Mr. To's motion. I think we need to amend the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance to step up control so that the public in consuming seafood can be protected. Apart from supporting the suggestion to set up an inter-departmental working group and a licensing system to control the suppliers of seawater, I have the following suggestions.

First, the Government and the relevant departments should provide us with a list of areas where we can get uncontaminated seawater. Secondly, suppliers of seawater must inform the Government where they get the seawater, i.e. the source of the seawater must be duly reported to the Government. It is the same as they declare the source of vegetables, whether they have used certain pesticides and also the location of the vegetable farms so that detection at source is necessary.

Thirdly, seafood retailers or seafood restaurants in future should be asked to put up a notice proving that the water they draw come from certain suppliers and certain water areas. That would ensure that when members of the public consume the seafood, they will be more confident because at present, despite the fact that the Department has been examining or testing the seawater quality and they have been doing some laboratory tests to find that some of the water is up to standard, they cannot effectively control the source of seawater. This of course has to do with the availability of a licensing system. But we find that a lot of seafood retailers are getting flush water from toilets to keep seafood and I think that poses a big problem which need to be tackled. If this motion is carried, I hope that the Department can formulate a detailed proposal to tackle this problem.

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