District councillors who claim the government is using Tuen Mun as a 'garbage dump' voted unanimously yesterday against a plan to build a waste incinerator in the district.
A special meeting was arranged for environmental officials to brief councillors about the project for the first time since it was raised in 1999.
But the 13 members who attended the meeting voted unanimously for a motion - of no binding power - against the plan, as well as the procedure to conduct an environmental impact assessment.
They said the new town had been plagued by too many waste-treatment facilities.
According to a government presentation, sludge collected from waste-water treatments would be shipped to the incinerator, to be built at Tsang Tsui, and burned at 850 degrees Celsius. The emissions would be treated before being released while the ashes would be sent to landfills. The planned sludge treatment centre at Tsang Tsui is 5km from Tuen Mun town centre.
Lung Shui-hing, a councillor from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said: 'Why Tuen Mun again? The government is treating the district like a garbage dump where all the unwanted facilities are found. It owes the residents.'