ENG-1996 — Page 328

TRANSPORT

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Combating Oil Pollution in the Harbour

The Pollution Control Unit of the Marine Department formulates the government's Oil Pollution Contingency Plan and cleans up oil spills. For clean-up jobs, the unit is equipped with a dedicated oil pollution control launch, five tugs capable of dispersing oil spills with chemicals and two oil recovery vessels.

Each year the unit co-ordinates a major oil pollution exercise involving oil companies and government departments such as the Government Flying Service and Civil Aid Services. The latest exercise was held near East Sha Chau, on Hong Kong's western border, in September. The Shenzhen Harbour Superintendency Ad- ministration participated in the exercise.

To ensure proper safety precautions are observed during bunkering operations in the port and to prevent oil spills or fire hazards, the unit conducted 75 inspections of these operations in 1996. The unit also inspected each oil storage installation in the territory about four times in the year. In 1996, there was only one serious oil spill and some minor spills involving less than one cubic metre of oil. The serious oil spill was caused in July by a ship under repair in a dockyard near Lantau Island. With help from the dockyard and other government departments, the unit successfully minimised damage to the environment.

Local Craft

Harbour workboats are essential to the efficient running of the port, and Hong Kong has many of them. More than 1 300 lighters and nearly 400 motorised cargo boats move cargo between ocean-going ships at mooring buoys or anchorages and cargo working areas ashore. They are part of Hong Kong's fleet of 15 000 local craft, including ferries, barges, cargo boats, workboats, fishing boats and pleasure vessels. The Marine Department sets and enforces safety standards for local craft. The Local Craft Review programme is in progress. It is aimed at improving safety of local craft by rationalising the certification, safety and control requirements and clearly redefining the duties and responsibilities of owners, operators and the government. Reclamation projects, such as those at Central and Wan Chai, have increased pressures on local craft navigating in the harbour. Special traffic measures have been adopted to ease the situation so that passenger ferries and other vessels can continue to operate safely from existing piers and landing steps while work proceeds around them. Eventually, the piers and landing steps will be relocated to the new reclamations.

Government Fleet

The government fleet of 354 powered vessels is highly visible in the port. Besides harbour patrol launches, fire boats and police launches, the government has launches for immigration, port health, customs clearance, and surveys of international shipping. The fleet includes lighters, airport rescue craft, pollution control craft, floating clinics and launches for transporting government staff.

The Marine Department designs, procures and maintains all government vessels. It has a rolling 10-year development plan to replace old vessels with new ones as they are needed. In 1996, 18 vessels costing a total of $100 million were delivered to the department and construction contracts for 35 vessels, worth $230 million, were awarded to shipbuilders in Hong Kong and overseas.