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Press
Releases - 2000
EPD
controls pollution through vigorous enforcement
The Environmental
Protection Department (EPD) is aiming to achieve a high degree
of compliance with environmental laws in Hong Kong through
a vigorous enforcement programme, the Director of Environmental
Protection, Mr Rob Law, said today (Wednesday).
Speaking
at the opening of the International Workshop on Enforcement
of Pollution Control, Mr Law said investigation into pollution
complaints received by the EPD's six complaint hotlines was
given the highest priority.
"In 1999,
the numbers of pollution complaints and successful prosecutions
handled by the EPD were 22 761 and 1 681 respectively, resulting
in total fines of $21.9 million," Mr Law said.
He pointed
out that the number of complaints and prosecutions were nearly
three times higher than those handled by the EPD five years
ago. He felt that one of the main reasons for this was that
members of the public were no longer willing to tolerate environmental
problems.
"The
rapidly increasing workload of the EPD made it necessary for
us to introduce efficiency improvements in our enforcement
practices and also in our legislation.
"In late
1999, our local control offices began to switch their enforcement
approach to a multi-discipline basis, which we call Integrated
Enforcement.
"The
newly-formed integrated enforcement teams comprise environmental
protection inspectors who are trained to deal with all types
of pollution problems during one visit. This greatly enhances
our effectiveness," Mr Law noted.
The international
workshop may lead to further enhancement and improvement of
environmental law enforcement in Hong Kong.
Mr Law
said: "It will also provide us with an up-to-date perspective
of enforcement in other countries to help us deal with the
new challenges ahead."
The two-day
workshop has been arranged by the EPD at the Century Hotel
as part of the 1999 Work Plan prepared under the Memorandum
of Understanding on Environmental Collaboration between Hong
Kong and Canada.
The memorandum
was signed in 1998 between the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region Government and the Department of the Environment of
Canada.
A delegation
of the Canadian environmental authorities and also experts
from the United Kingdom and Australia have been invited to
the workshop to share their experience and knowledge of the
development and implementation of various aspects of pollution
control enforcement.
Also
speaking at the opening of the workshop is the Regional Director
of Environment Canada (Pacific and Yukon Region), Mr Vic Niemela.
End/Wednesday,
March 1, 2000
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