>Press Releases Home > Publications and press releases > Press Releases Public urged to keep the harbour clean Support and cooperation from members of the public is crucial to the success of keeping the harbour clean, Acting Director of Marine Mr Tsang Man-ching said today (Tuesday). Actively participating in the Healthy Living into the 21st Century Campaign, the Marine department has all along been working for a cleaner harbour by tackling the problem of floating refuse at sea," Mr Tsang said. But it depends very much on every citizen's support by refraining from littering in order to achieve that target," he stressed. Speaking at the launching ceremony of a cleaning exercise to prepare for the Chinese New Year at Aberdeen typhoon shelter, Mr Tsang said that Marine Department has worked along three lines to tackle the floating refuse problem. Firstly, the Marine Department scavenges floating refuse and collects refuse from vessels through a fleet of 70 vessels, comprising both government and contractor vessels. Last year, the refuse collected and scavenged amounted to 10,490 tonnes, representing an increase of 18.2 per cent over that of the previous year. Mr Tsang said that strategically located Marine Refuse Collection Points have been established to raise the efficiency of the fleet as the steaming time of the vessels to unload refuse could be reduced. Secondly, Mr Tsang said that a series of promotional and educational activities have been organised for ship owners, typhoon shelter users and cargo handling operators to raise their awareness on protecting the marine environment. This year, we will further our effort to promote the keep harbour clean message among the students," he said. Last but not least, Mr Tsang said that prosecution actions would be stepped up to deter marine littering. Last year, the department has taken prosecution actions against 128 cases of marine littering, an increase of 34.7 per cent over 1998. Today's cleaning exercise was jointly organised by the Marine Department and the Hong Kong and Kowloon Floating Fishermen Welfare Promotion Association. A fleet of 20 cleaning boats from the association and ten cleaning boats from the department took part in cleaning up the entire Aberdeen typhoon shelter. The cleaning fleet also distributed leaflets and broadcast keep clean messages in the typhoon shelter. Tuesday, 25 January 2000
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