Following its failure to gain support from law makers the Environment Bureau has abandoned its HK$23 billion ($3 billion) funding request for major waste projects including a waste to energy incineration facility.
The project proposes to build a man-made island near Shek Kwu Chau off the South coast of Lan to house a 3000 tonne per day Integrated Waste Management Facility.
However, according to a report in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the controversial plan will face uncertain delays when they are left to the next government to decide as requested by lawmakers at an Environment Panel meeting.
Members of the Panel refused to back the Bureau’s funding request to the Public Works Subcommittee and Finance Committee.
The report said that the Environment Bureau has abandoned its funding request for what it says is an urgently needed waste incinerator and landfill expansion after failing to gain the support of lawmakers from across the political spectrum yesterday.
Despite the government’s warnings, one waste expert is reported to have said that Hong Kong would not immediately plunge into a waste crisis, but that it would be wise for the city to start at least one landfill expansion to ease pressure.
The SCMP reported that some members cited concerns over government transition, following a remark by chief executive-elect Leung Chun-ying on the role of incineration, while others criticised the government for its poor performance on recycling and waste reduction.
Lawmakers were said to be unconvinced by Environment Minister, Edward Yau Tang-wah’s assertions that the waste plans were essential regardless of who led the next government, and were needed before all landfills were full by 2018.
“Without the support of the panel, the current administration is unable to file the funding requests within this term and complete all the relevant processes,” the bureau said.
However, Lawmaker Gary Chan Hak-kan, from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong and chairman of the environment panel, is reported to have said that the Environment Minister is still free to table the funding requests at his own risk.
Chan is also reported to have said that he may be willing to consider funding requests for less controversial landfill expansion plans in Tuen Mun and North District, but excluding Tseung Kwan O.
Meanwhile, according to the SCMP Professor Jonathan Wong Woon-chung, a waste expert from Baptist University, said a delay of a year would only have a small impact on the overall waste problem.
Wong is reported to have said that the delay might give the government more time to come up with effective waste reduction strategies involving waste-charging schemes, but that he believed an incinerator was part of the waste solution.
