In 2019, the Hong Kong Gun Club was exposed by the environmental protection group "Green Earth" that its shooting activities caused environmental pollution. The buffer zone of Tai Lam Country Park next to the Road Twisk was distributed with shotgun pellets, target fragments and plastic bullets, etc. The objects are believed to be the remnants of the target shooting activities of the club.
After two years, "Green Earth" visited the site again in October and November this year, and found that the problem was still unresolved.
Due to the special nature of the source of pollution, this incident may involve multiple departments such as the Water Supplies Department, Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, Lands Department, and Police Department. However, they often lack communication or even shirk each other's responsibilities. In this way, a separate government is formed. Due to the state, the problem has been delayed for a long time and has not been solved for a long time.
The then Tsuen Wan District Councillor, Zhao Enlai, revealed that as early as 2018, residents and hikers had received complaints about the orange debris in the area. At that time, he wrote to the Lands Administration Office but received a reply from the other party saying that it was followed up by the Water Supplies Department and the Police Department. It can be seen that the Lands Department not only failed to conduct an investigation immediately, but shifted the responsibility to other departments.
Delay resolution speed
Although the Water Supplies Department took action in 2020, the department was engaged in the seizure of shooting remnants from a waterway leading to the Shing Mun Reservoir near the scene, and therefore took prosecution action against the Hong Kong Gun Association. However, in the end, the gun was ordered due to a problem with the evidence search. Will be "technically exonerated."
In theory, the Lands Department was the first government department to learn about this pollution problem, but it seems to be the latest party to take public action-until the Water Supplies Department’s prosecution failed, the staff of the Lands Department stayed in Tsuen Wan. The parliament stated that it was investigating, and it was only in June this year that it issued a warning letter to the Hong Kong Gun Association that it violated the lot agreement.
In fact, the problem of gun contamination is inherently interrelated. The shooting residues seized in the catchment were originally caused by the Lands Department’s failure to effectively control the tenants. However, the two departments did not start a joint inspection operation until May this year.
As for the police, who should be responsible for enforcing the Firearms and Ammunition Ordinance, it was not until this year that they voted against gun club licensees on the grounds that they failed to properly clean up and dispose of used ammunition. They showed that each department should deal with the same connection. In the event, they are still working independently. Without a sense of joint action, it is naturally difficult to exert sufficient pressure on the offenders.
Green Earth took 10 soil samples for testing and found that all samples contained heavy metals such as lead, arsenic (namely arsenic) and antimony.
(Photo by Golden Chess)
Penalties for dealing with delays can be aggravated
As for the other reason for the delay, to a large extent it has to do with the penalties being too light.
If the penalties fail to effectively target the offenders, the deterrence will be greatly reduced.
The Hong Kong Gun Club is currently granting approximately 6.49 hectares of land at a nominal land price of $1,000 under the "Private Pleasure Land Deed". The land lease stipulates that the Gun Club should avoid polluting the water source of the lot or adjacent areas. Otherwise, it will need to clean up at its own expense, but according to shooting For the coverage and quantity of waste, the Gun Club has not fulfilled its responsibilities at all, and the government authorities have the right to terminate the lease early.
However, until now, the most severe action of the Lands Department was only to carry out the "deed" operation in September this year, and the gun club still has the right to use the land until 2027.
Since there is still residual shooting waste in the country park buffer zone, the relevant penalties obviously need to be increased.
The ring group found a large amount of shooting waste on the hillside near the Hong Kong Gun Club.
(Photo by Huang Shuhui)
The same problem is not limited to the gun club incident. The Jiuhuajing barbecue unlicensed operation incident that has recently aroused heated discussion is another example. Even if the person in charge has been repeatedly prosecuted and fined, it has not effectively prevented its business. This reflects the government's many years of experience. Simple enforcement can hardly eliminate the problem, and the most direct way is to increase penalties to increase the cost of violations.
The problem of delay is easy to end. The crime of polluting the water from the private building's sewage and the rainwater pipe is the law behind the bureaucratic unlicensed barbecue site and the chaos of the ownership.