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1. Contractors dumping soil at bird conservation area

1. Contractors dumping soil at bird conservation area
CHEUNG CHI-FAI, SCMP 23 May 2003

A marsh in Shuen Wan that has been designated a conservation zone and is inhabited by 200 species of birds is being filled by illegal dumping by contractors working on government projects, it was claimed yesterday.

A bird watcher and a green activist have criticised the government for failing to take action.

Over the past two months, hundreds of tonnes of soil from at least two government projects in Tai Po has been dumped in the marsh near Ting Kok Road, which has been bought by private developers.

Two days ago, 15 trucks were seen dumping 31 loads of soil at the site in the space of 75 minutes.

Richard Lewthwaite, a bird-watcher who has tracked down the sources of the dumping, was furious that government officials had done nothing to stop the dumping despite repeated complaints to the Planning Department.

"Clearly, the officials are either evading their environmental responsibility and/or the department is staffed with incompetent people," he said.

A planning official visited the site yesterday and erected a sign to warn against dumping. But the trucks returned as soon as he left.

"We only address the issue of land use change but not the dumping itself [which] is the responsibility of the Environmental Protection Department (EDP)," said Yum Chi-fai, a senior town planner at the Planning Department.

But an EPD spokeswoman said infilling on private land fell outside its powers and insisted it was the Planning Department's job.

Mike Kilburn, of the Bird Watching Society, proposed that drivers caught dumping illegally should lose their licences.

An Architectural Services Department spokesman is to investigate and said the soil should go to a disposal area in Kai Tak.