ENG-2007 — Page 320

268 The Environment

For major projects, permit holders are required to set up dedicated websites to publish project information, including the results and data obtained from the environmental monitoring and auditing process. Since 2002, proponents of major projects have been required to set up web camera systems to enable the public to see conditions at their sites.

Land Use Planning

For major land use planning studies, a Strategic Environmental Assessment is required to incorporate environmental considerations into the formulation of land use plans. Under the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance, an EIA must be carried out as part of the engineering feasibility study of urban development or redevelopment projects with a study area of more than 20 hectares or involving a population of more than 100 000 people. These environmental assessments are an integral part of the planning studies and help identify major environmental issues and possible mitigation measures for inclusion in the land use plans.

Environmental Management and Sustainability

The new review of the Territorial Development Strategy entitled 'Hong Kong 2030: Planning Vision and Strategy', which began in September 2000, contains a strategic environmental assessment study which addresses long-term environmental sustainability issues. Members of the public took part in the study.

The Government promotes environmental management in both the public and private sectors through the Green Manager Scheme, environmental auditing, environmental management systems (EMS) and environmental performance reporting. All bureaux and departments have appointed Green Managers, most of whom have regular environmental audit programmes, and some hold ISO 14001 EMS certificates. All bureaux and departments publish annual reports of their environmental performance. Starting from 2007, all annual environmental performance reports incorporate, where appropriate, the principles of the 'Clean Air Charter' which the Government supports to improve Hong Kong's air quality.

To provide continual support to small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to implement their EMS programmes, the EPD has produced user-friendly ISO 14001 EMS support packages for the construction and electrical/electronic sectors to follow. These packages, which are also useful to other business sectors, have been updated to meet the latest requirements outlined in the ISO 14001: 2004 version and can be freely accessed via EPD's website.

Rural Developments

The Government is committed to improving the quality of life in rural areas and to ending or removing land uses that downgrade the rural environment. The facilities. for sewage disposal in the rural areas of the New Territories are also better than before and are still being improved. In 2007, the Government earmarked an additional $2.2 billion to provide public sewers to enable domestic discharges from a further 241 000 people living in 242 villages and other areas without sewers to be conveyed to sewage treatment works.