ENG-2005 — Page 346

300 The Environment

Livestock Waste Pollution

The Waste Disposal Ordinance bans livestock-keeping in new towns and environmentally sensitive areas. Where they are allowed, livestock farms must have proper waste treatment systems.

Under the livestock waste control scheme, livestock farmers who choose to continue in business can apply for a grant and a loan to help pay for pollution-control facilities. Since the start of the scheme in 1987, about $63 million has been paid out in capital grants. Farmers who choose to cease business can apply for an allowance, and about $883 million has been disbursed. Livestock waste pollution has been reduced by 97 per cent since the inception of the control scheme.

The Government provides a free livestock waste collection service which collected a monthly average of about 5 438 tonnes of waste during the year.

Bathing Beaches

Bathing beaches are an important recreational resource and the Government has adopted strict standards for water quality control to protect the health of swimmers. These standards indicate the pollution level measured in terms of E.coli (the bacterium that can indicate the presence of sewage). The following table shows how beaches were classified in 2005. Beaches in the 'good' and 'fair' categories meet the Government's water quality objective for bathing. In 2005, over 80 per cent of the bathing beaches met the water quality objective.

Beach water quality ranking

Good

Bathing season geometric mean of E. coli count per 100ml of beach water

Minor health risk cases per 1 000

swimmers

Undetectable

Number of beaches

in 2005

Up to 24

23

Fair

25 to 180

10 or less

11

Poor

181 to 610

11 to 15

1

Very Poor

More than 610

More than 15

6

Beach water quality gradings for open beaches are available on the EPD's home page, hotline and weekly press releases.

Waste Management

Waste Reduction

In December 2005, the Government published 'A Policy Framework for the Management of Municipal Solid Waste (2005-2014)'. The policy framework sets out the strategy and measures to address the municipal solid waste problem in Hong Kong over the next decade and proposes simple yet effective economic tools that will create incentives for the community to recycle more and discard less.