Grading of beach water quality released
The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) today (August 15) released the latest grading of water quality for 39 gazetted beaches (see Note 1) and one non-gazetted beach (see Note 2).
Nineteen beaches were rated as Good (Grade 1), 16 as Fair (Grade 2) and five as Poor (Grade 3).
Grade 1 beaches are:
Cheung Chau Tung Wan Beach*
Silverstrand Beach*
Chung Hom Kok Beach
South Bay Beach*
Clear Water Bay Second Beach*
St. Stephen's Beach
Hap Mun Bay Beach*
Stanley Main Beach*
Hung Shing Yeh Beach*
Tai Po Lung Mei Beach*
Kiu Tsui Beach
Tong Fuk Beach
Kwun Yam Beach
Trio Beach
Lo So Shing Beach
Turtle Cove Beach
Repulse Bay Beach*
Upper Cheung Sha Beach
Shek O Beach*
Grade 2 beaches are:
Anglers' Beach*
Golden Beach*
Butterfly Beach*
Kadoorie Beach
Cafeteria New Beach
Lido Beach*
Cafeteria Old Beach
Lower Cheung Sha Beach
Casam Beach*
Ma Wan Tung Wan Beach*
Clear Water Bay First Beach
Middle Bay Beach
Deep Water Bay Beach*
Pui O Beach*
Discovery Bay Tai Pak Beach [Non-gazetted beach]
Silver Mine Bay Beach*
Grade 3 beaches are:
Approach Beach
Hoi Mei Wan Beach
Big Wave Bay Beach*
Ting Kau Beach*
Castle Peak Beach
Compared with the grading released last week, Big Wave Bay Beach has been changed from Grade 2 to Grade 3.
"The changes are generally within the normal range of fluctuation of the bacteriological water quality of the beaches," an EPD spokesman said.
Under the present grading system, beaches are classified into four grades, namely Good (Grade 1), Fair (Grade 2), Poor (Grade 3) and Very Poor (Grade 4), according to the level of E. coli in the water. Grades are calculated on the basis of the geometric mean of the E. coli counts on the five most recent sampling occasions.
While the ratings represent the general water quality at the beaches, the EPD spokesman reminded members of the public that water quality could be temporarily affected during and after periods of heavy rain. Bathers should avoid swimming at beaches for up to three days after a tropical cyclone or heavy rainfall.
A summary of beach grades is published weekly before the weekend. The latest beach grades based on the most current data may be obtained from the EPD's website on Beach Water Quality (www.epd.gov.hk/epd/beach) or the beach hotline, 2511 6666. Members of the public can also obtain the latest daily water quality forecast information for all beaches that are open for swimming through the EPD's dedicated webpage on the beach water quality forecast (www.epd.gov.hk/en/BWQForecast).
Note 1: Lifesaving services are provided by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department at 21 gazetted beaches, marked with an asterisk (*) above, from June 1. For details, please refer to the Leisure and Cultural Services Department's Special Announcement (www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/beach/index.html).
Note 2: This refers to Discovery Bay Tai Pak Beach, which has no lifesaving service.
Government announces updates on follow-up work on Tai Po fire
The three task forces set up by the Government for the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po - the Task Force on Investigation and Regulation, the Task Force on Emergency Support and Fund-Raising, and the Task Force on Emergency Accommodation Arrangements - are making full efforts to follow up on the support, relief, and investigation work related to the incident. Details are as follows:
Financial and welfare support
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For the Support Fund for Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, established by the Government, donations received are about $3 billion as of noon today (December 8). In addition to the start-up capital of $300 million from the Government, the fund's total has now reached around $3.3 billion. The fund will be used to assist residents in rebuilding their homes and providing long-term and sustained support.
The Government earlier announced that the Support Fund will provide a living allowance to each affected household. As of today, 1 357 cases have been processed. The living allowance is increased from $50,000 to $100,000 and will be disbursed in phases. In addition, the Support Fund will provide families of each deceased victim with a token of solidarity of $200,000, as well as $50,000 to cover funeral costs. As of today, a total of 95 cases have been processed.
In addition, the Government has so far disbursed an emergency subsidy of $10,000 to 1 932 households, and the relevant disbursement is largely complete.
Social workers from the Social Welfare Department (SWD) have been in contact with more than 1 970 affected households, and more than 4 900 residents have been registered for the "one social worker per household" follow-up service. SWD staff also paid visits to the affected residents staying in transitional housing units in Yuen Long today and distributed Octopus cards with a face value of $2,000 to facilitate their daily travels and address their imminent needs. The SWD will maintain liaison with the affected households to provide all necessary assistance while fully supporting the relief work of the Government. Those not yet in touch with the SWD are advised to leave their contact information by calling 182 183 as soon as possible.
Accommodation support
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As of this morning, a total of 1 422 residents have been accommodated, through the co-ordination of the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, in youth hostels, camps, or hotel rooms. Another 2 522 residents are currently living in transitional housing units provided by the Housing Bureau or units from the Hong Kong Housing Society. Moreover, the Tai Po District Office continues to operate a temporary shelter at Tai Po Community Centre, which remains open to residents in need. The other temporary shelter at Tung Cheong Street Community Hall will remain in operation until the existing users have relocated to arranged emergency accommodations.
Relief supplies and donations
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The supplies donation online platform, established by the Government and the information technology sector, continues to operate, facilitating the registration of supplies donations from organisations and the public. The Government has so far received over 1 600 registrations, of which approximately 30 per cent were submitted by organisations, whereas the others were contributed by the public. The various registered donation items include food and beverages, clothing, daily necessities, bedding, and electrical appliances. The Government is actively assessing residents' actual needs through the relevant policy bureau, government departments, and service organisations for the matching of donated supplies in order to distribute appropriate items in phases to places in need. So far, over 5 700 pieces of donation items covering various categories have been distributed to different places. The matching and distribution of supplies will continue.
Handling of reported missing persons
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Officers from the Disaster Victim Identification Unit continued to search the area around the buildings and near the collapsed scaffolding today, which had been confirmed as safe. No human remains were found, and the number of deceased remains at 159. The Police have contacted the families of the missing persons and those who have preliminarily identified the deceased through photographs to arrange for them to undergo DNA oral swab sampling in batches starting today for scientific identification of the deceased.
Regulation and inspection work
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The emergency maintenance contractors co-ordinated by the Housing Department have completed the clearance of the miscellaneous items at the surroundings of the buildings at Wang Fuk Court today. The Independent Checking Unit (ICU) of the Housing Bureau also continued to extract concrete core samples from the affected buildings today. So far, five buildings have been covered.
The ICU has conducted inspections on the scaffoldings of the four Home Ownership Scheme courts, namely Yee Kok Court in Sham Shui Po, On Kay Court in Kwun Tong, Sui Wo Court in Sha Tin and Ching Lai Court in Sham Shui Po, as well as Fung Wah Estate in Chai Wan under the Tenants Purchase Scheme. Miscellaneous items were found on some scaffoldings. The contractor is removing the items. The ICU will closely monitor the progress.
Regarding the order to remove scaffold nets issued by the Buildings Department (BD), as of 5pm today, 227 private buildings have had their scaffold nets removed from the external walls (including two cases completed by government contractors). Work on the remaining three cases, in which the BD has accepted an extension of time, is underway and is expected to finish within this week.
The BD is striving to announce a new set of arrangements within this week that will require scaffold nets used at construction sites to be sampled on-site and certified as compliant with the relevant standards prior to installation, so that the relevant external wall work can resume as soon as possible.
The Labour Department (LD) continues to inspect fire protection facilities and the fire emergency preparedness of building maintenance work sites with large-scale scaffolding to ensure the occupational safety of workers. As of 4pm today, the LD has inspected 351 construction sites, issued a total of 180 written warnings and 96 improvement notices, and has taken out 25 prosecutions.
Source: AI-found images
