HK people want more action on environment - survey
Date: 10-Dec-01
Country: CHINA
The survey of 960 people by non-profit public policy think tank Civic Exchange found over 60 percent of respondents said the government ought to make these issues a top priority.
Fifty-six percent of respondents said they were concerned "a great deal" with drinking water pollution, 53 percent with pesticides in vegetables and 49 percent with air pollution.
Only 19 percent of respondents said environmental problems in mainland China were a top priority, despite the fact that much of Hong Kong's drinking water comes from the mainland, also the source of much of the air pollution that plagues the territory.
Friends of the Earth in Hong Kong said the results showed that people in the territory are only interested in environmental problems that directly impact them.
"People's awareness is going up," director of Friends of the Earth, Mei Ng, told reporters, but she noted that "they care only about issues around them and lack a global vision."
Hong Kong people have become particularly wary of food contamination after a series of food scares in recent years.
The government has twice had to slaughter the entire poultry population, once in 1998 and again this year, to stop the spread of the deadly "chicken flu" that killed six people in 1997.
Despite a pledge by Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa to clean up the city, 55 percent of respondents in the survey said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with efforts by top government officials to tackle air and water pollution.
But Ng said too many people were relying on the government to take care of the environment, ignoring their own duties.
While 92 percent supported tougher penalties for littering, when asked why so many people litter in Hong Kong, 53 percent of respondents said they did so because the practice was common or because there were not enough litter bins. Thirty-three percent said they littered because the city was already very dirty.
