ENG-1998 — Page 474

THE ENVIRONMENT

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purpose of the import, is an offence under WDO. Maximum penalties are a fine of $200,000 and six months imprisonment for the first offence and $500,000 and two years for subsequent offences. In 1998, there were 30 convictions for illegal import or export of waste, with fines totalling $549,000.

To tie in with the latest requirement of the Basel Convention, the government effected a ban on the importation of hazardous waste from developed countries on December 28, 1998. Import permits will not be issued for hazardous waste shipments from members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, European Union and Liechtenstein.

Provision of Facilities and Services

Hong Kong produces more than two million tonnes of sewage and about 8 800 tonnes of municipal waste every day. The government plans to improve the local sewerage networks under a series of sewerage master plans. Under a sewage disposal scheme for the main urban areas, a new system of collection shafts and tunnels is being built to transfer sewage to a central treatment plant on Stonecutters Island. Eventually, treated effluent will be discharged through an oceanic outfall south of Hong Kong.

Sewerage Master Plans

Hong Kong has been divided into 16 sewerage master plan areas. The last plan was drawn up in 1996. The plans identify works that will cost a total of $11.5 billion to bring the sewers up to standard in a phased improvement programme. The Chai Wan and Shau Kei Wan master plan was the first completed, in December 1997. This was followed by the Tsuen Wan, Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi master plan (November 1998). The remaining plans should be implemented by 2005.

To meet revised population projections and the government's housing programme, the EPD will start reviewing the sewerage master plans for various districts, notably, Central and East Kowloon, Tsing Yi, Tuen Mun and the outlying islands. These reviews aim to check the adequacy of the plans and to identify additional sewerage infrastructure to meet housing needs up to 2016.

Sewer connections to individual properties are still in progress. Improvements in several parts of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories are well under way. Under the Water Pollution Control (Sewerage) Regulation, the EPD may require house owners to connect their waste water to new public sewers. In 1998, waste water from 8 000 people was diverted into public sewers. Since the regulation came into force at the end of 1995, waste water from 24 000 people has been connected to public sewers.

Treatment and Disposal of Sewage for the Main Urban Area

On a strategic level, sewage collected by the local sewerage network is directed to a sewage disposal system known as the Strategic Sewage Disposal Scheme (SSDS) for treatment and final disposal. The system is divided into three parts stage I, stage II and stage III/IV.

Stage I collects sewage from the urban areas of Kowloon, Tsuen Wan, Tseung Kwan O and the north-eastern part of Hong Kong Island. It will be completed in 2000, but its key element, the Stonecutters Island sewage treatment works, began