Restoration of destructed government land

How do we interpret the phase “Keep your own pain”?

 

To governmental departments, those pains from environmental devastation can be kept patience for a half-year, a year, or even three years. Pains pale over time and turn into a haze of cloud and mist. Prying into the space between them, however, can discover that some facts and pains are still clear as usual. After all, time can no longer remedy any problems.

 

Situation in 2009

Situation in January 2010

The Conservation Area near Ngam Tau Sha in Clear Water Bay was discovered a 135m-long and 3.5m-wide illegal road access in Jan 2007. It is estimated that about 1,000 trees were felled for the access. After three years, the road section of about 30 metres remained cement-paved, while the vegetations in the unpaved part did not grow well.
 

In March 2009, another illegal road access was excavated on the government land in Chuk Kok, Sai Kung. A 2km-long and 2m-wide track originated from Conservation Area to Coastal Protection Area in Campers’ Beach. During re-visiting the site, the track was covered by steel and found no abundance of vegetation growth.
 

In Shan Liu, Tai Po, a 500m-long and 5m-wide cemented road was found encroaching from Shan Liu to Lei Pek Shan in January last year. Part of the road fell within the Country Park area. It has been still remained.

For the cases in Ngam Tau Sha and Chuk Kok, Lands Department quoted Agriculture, Fishery and Conservation Department’s words that most of the existing road sections were unpaved. Since vegetations can substantially grow on such natural environment, no restoration works were needed on these two unpaved roads. For the case in Shan Liu, Tai Po District Office is now considering appropriate land restriction measures and also restoration work with other departments. However, natural process of recovery should depend on no natural and human disturbance. If referring to the less gentle topography which induces high chance of soil erosion, and the existing path which still allows human access, how can we fully depend on such process? Moreover, plants do not grow in cement nonetheless. The Administration should remove the cement paving and plant trees for restoration.

When there is unauthorized development on private land, Planning Department would impose “reinstatement notice” to land owners. While the Administration did not restore the destructed government land, it seems that the Administration has a double standard which is strict to other but lenient to oneself.

Keeping your own pain can also be positive. Understanding and facing your own pain is the best way of problem-solving. Using time to hold back environmental problems passively and letting pain turn round and round in a revolving door would remain problem unchanged, wouldn’t it?
 
 

 New measures for monitoring fly-tipping of Construction and Demolition (C&D) Waste

Environmental Protection Department has recently suggested amending the Waste Disposal Ordinance. It proposed that any waste depositing activities on private land should obtain prior written permission of all the landowner(s) concerned to further regulate fly-tipping on private land.

To put it bluntly, the written permission is only a notification in nature but cannot solve the problem. We worry that the proposal would indirectly recognize fly-tipping on private land as reasonable, and lead to uncontrolled fly-tipping if acquiring written permission from landowners.

The arrangement that grant exemption to waste depositing activities on an area less than 100 m2 is definitely not acceptable. Those dumpers can escape from obtaining written permission from landowners by simply dividing large-scale depositing activity into small ones and cutting a large land lot into sections less than the threshold before dumping waste. The arrangement would in contrary encourage small-scale fly-tipping activities on private land.

Take the case in Shan Pui Road in Nam Sang Wai as an example. Along a short road section of 100m, we have already discovered that four land patches of less than 100 m2 each have already been fly-tipped with construction and demolition (C&D) waste intruding into the reedbed. Two of the land patches are even adjacent to the formerly fly-tipped land, while another one is right outside the Shan Pui Village Rural Committee. It turns out that some private land of high ecological value in New Territories must be the first to be threatened and encroached by C&D waste, thus resulting in environmental disasters.
 







 
Regarding the details of the Waste Disposal Ordinance's amendment proposal, please refer to the following document:
http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/waste/files/consultation_paper.pdf
Should any public member wish to raise your suggestions, please voice them to the Environmental Protection Department by 22th May.
 
 
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