Annex 1 Hong Kong, 9 June 2020 Mr Yim Chun-ho Chairman to the Environment, Hygiene and Healthcare Committee of Southern District Council G/F & 1/F, Ocean Court 3 Aberdeen Praya Road, Aberdeen By email: [email protected] 4th EHHC meeting on 7 July 2020 Marine air pollution in the Southern District Dear Chairman, Hong Kong is the 7th busiest container ports in the world in 2018, and East Lamma Channel is one of the world’s busiest navigation channel as it also serves the ports in Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Since 2014, Cap 548 and Cap 313 has been amended so it is an offence for local vessels and ocean-going vessels respectively to emit smoke as dark as or darker than shade 2 on ringelmann chart continuously for 3 minutes or more. Since 2019, Cap 311AB came into force that all vessels are required to use low sulphur fuel. However, we continue to receive reports from residents of dark and excessive smoke emitted by local and ocean going vessels. Residents in Ap Lei Chau, Wah Kwai, Wah Fu and Pokfulam are deeply concerned over the air pollution caused by these vessels. Successful prosecution by the Marine Department requires 3-minutes continuous video and witnesses willing to come to the Marine Department’s offices for official statements. We would like to raise the following questions: 1) Can the Marine Department provide the following statistics? Year Number of Total fines Number of smoky Total fines Total number of smoky local imposed on ocean-going imposed on prosecutions not vessels the local vessels the ocean- based on videos successively vessels successively going vessels provided by prosecuted prosecuted witness/residents 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2) To streamline the prosecution process and given the technological advancement since 2014, will marine department consider deploying cameras along East Lamma Channel to collect evidence and facilitate prosecution? 3) Who is the enforcement agent for Cap 311AB to check if the vessels are using low Sulphur fuel? How was the inspection carried out? What is the number of inspections conducted and the number of vessels prosecuted in 2019? Yours sincerely Paul Zimmerman Pictures of smoky vessels at East Lamma Channel .