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The new chief of Environmental Protection Department (EPD) has sought people's support for a number of costly and controversial green initiatives to forge a partnership with the community.

Many of the initiatives spelt out by Kwok Ka-keung yesterday, his first day as EPD director, suggested higher fees or new charges could be levied on households and trades in the long-run.

Sitting in his new office on the 46th floor of Revenue Tower, Kwok said EPD looked forward to implementing the HK$20-billion Harbor Area Treatment Scheme (HATS) Stage II in two phases by 2013.

A consultation document on land will be issued in September, introducing a new strategy to reduce Hong Kong's dependence on landfills for solid waste disposal. Costly hi-tech incinerators are among the options. Such a hi-tech plant would cost billions of dollars, and if people accept incinerators in their backyard, the per-head monthly cost of solid waste treatment could increase to about HK$30 from HK$20-plus.

Besides, imposing new levies on items like tyres, plastic/polythene bags and rechargeable batteries is also under study, Kwok said.

To reduce air pollution, Hong Kong and Guangdong would thrash out by the third quarter of next year the particulars of a gas emission allowance trading program to cap power plants' emissions in the Pearl River Delta region.

Each plant would be set a maximum limit of gas emission, and the less efficient ones, more likely to exceed their quota, would have to "buy" the unused quota of the better ones. The extra cost, Kwok said, will force such plants to improve their performance and become environment friendly.

US experience shows that the price of sulfur dioxide allowances rose 250 per cent in the past year. Allowances, once traded for US$100 a ton of the gas, rose to US$200 early last year and topped US$700 in the last few months.

Kwok, who remains the Permanent Secretary for Environment, Transports and Works at the policy making level, said governments alone couldn't make Hong Kong cleaner. The public has to participate as a partner in the fight against pollution.

"It is my wish to strengthen our ties with the public, to make it one of partnership because it is not enough for officials to move ahead on their own. We must win their (people's) recognition and mobilize them," Kwok said.

An important principle in the environment battle is to make the polluter pay, Kwok said. The authorities will follow that principle aggressively because polluters would be least bothered as long as taxpayers continue paying for waste treatment.

Citing the condition of the harbor as an example, Kwok said sewage charges and the trade effluent surcharge - paid by families and trades for covering part of the treatment cost - might go up this year, for they have remained unchanged since being introduced in 1995.

As part of public education, the authorities are pressing ahead with waste sorting in 180 public and private residential estates with a total population of 1 million.

So far, 160 estates have agreed to join the voluntary scheme. But Kwok didn't say whether residents too would have to pay if the voluntary scheme drew poor response.

EPD and Guangdong authorities have connected 16 air monitoring stations, which would be fully operational in summer. Kwok said they would release the readings across the region regularly to let the public know how the air quality had changed.

(China Daily HK Edition April 2, 2005)