The novel coronavirus epidemic in Hong Kong is severe. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced on Tuesday (8th) that the epidemic prevention measures and social distancing measures will be tightened again. Except for 6 new items, from February 24th, you must present a "vaccine passport" and scan "safe travel" when entering ".
What is more urgent is that from this Thursday (10th), religious premises and barbershops will be closed until the early morning of February 24th.
The gathering restriction order has also been extended to private premises, and gatherings of more than two families are also prohibited, which means that the daily activities of citizens will be greatly restricted.
In order to control the epidemic, it is appropriate for the government to restrict the activities of citizens' gatherings, but some of the consequences may be passed on to the suburbs.
Affected by the epidemic, the choice of urban activities has become increasingly limited, attracting a large number of citizens to transfer to more outdoor activities that need to be carried out in the suburbs. Among them, camping and hiking have become a new favorite for many people.
People still need epidemic prevention in the countryside
First of all, because in the Prevention and Control of Disease (Wearing of Masks) Regulation (Cap. 599I), the country park area defined by Section 2 of the Country Parks Ordinance (Cap. 208) does not mandate the wearing of masks by the public Therefore, since the beginning of the epidemic, in addition to outdoor equipment, a new category of country waste has been added, masks that are difficult to decompose naturally. However, a more serious problem may be that citizens may relax on epidemic prevention in the countryside.
In view of the resurgence of the current epidemic, with more than 1,000 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday (9th), the epidemic prevention measures in the countryside should also be tightened accordingly. It is also mandatory to wear masks in parks to avoid making the countryside the next loophole in epidemic prevention.
Secondly, during the epidemic, volunteers continued to find a large amount of garbage generated by outdoor activities in various camping hotspots such as Tung Lung Island, Tap Mun, Chek Keng, and Po Toi Island.
During the Lunar New Year holiday, some volunteers visited three popular camping sites on Donglong Island to collect garbage. They found that the problem persisted, and some of the garbage was blown to the grass around the campsite, making the surrounding area full of garbage and difficult to clean up.
In addition to common garbage such as food packaging, plastic bottles, paper towels, etc., some people directly discard undamaged camping equipment everywhere, and there are so many types of camping equipment that they can even sort out a set of camping equipment.
AFCD's law enforcement needs to be strengthened
Of course, tourists shouldn't dispose of their rubbish at will, but the lack of enforcement by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department has further exacerbated the problem.
Since July 15, 2020, the 163 barbecue sites and 41 camping sites in the country parks under the AFCD have been officially closed to reduce social contact with the public. BBQ and camping activities.
However, in the past year, a large amount of rubbish has been found in and near the facilities, which is enough to reflect that the enforcement efforts of the Department are not enough to stop the citizens who try to drill holes. Therefore, the AFCD needs to conduct more inspections to crack down on illegal activities.
Originally, Hong Kong could only camp on official camping sites or private land. However, in the past, different media found that citizens had conducted camping activities in country parks other than the above two sites. For example, volunteers from Jingshan visited during the New Year’s holiday. I went to the unofficial camping site on Donglong Island and found that a large number of citizens have been camping.
And the government should also take action, whether it is to regulate and crack down on existing illegal activities; or to study amendments to allow citizens to conduct camping activities in more places, such as allowing citizens to conduct camping activities in country parks, etc. If you waste any more time, otherwise, only part of the countryside will continue to be damaged, and it will eventually be irreversible.
The countryside environment undoubtedly shares the pressure of the society to deal with the epidemic, and its value is even more important under the epidemic. Therefore, it is also a major issue in society to keep the countryside environment alive and sustainable.
The most important thing is to rely on the self-discipline of users, so the government also needs to be more active in promoting citizens to cherish the environment, and take advantage of the opportunity for citizens to move to the outdoors with fewer choices in urban activities, to further strengthen the publicity of "no trace in the countryside".
Suburban garbage bugs reappear foreign garbage, please take away tourists, illegally destroy the countryside, and use the app to collect public reports. Is it better to patrol?
