A ferocious typhoon named Vicente did not only wreak havoc on our city, breaking hundreds of trees and injuring dozens of people late last month, it also left the city's people in some alarm over millions of plastic pellets that washed up in Hong Kong waters. The most important lesson was that the entire incident exposed flaws in the existing response mechanism: inaction, lack of interdepartmental coordination and lack of crisis management on the part of the SAR government.

As Chief Secretary Carrie Lam admitted on Monday, two weeks after the plastic pellet spill occurred, the government could have done a better job of handling this pollution. But what kept the government from performing its duty to ease public concerns and clean up the polluted beaches at the earliest possible time? Lam failed to give a satisfactory answer.

In fact, starting from the plastic pellet spill two weeks ago, the government had ample opportunity to alert the public and fish farmers of the spill and call for help from other departments and experts. The incident occurred on July 23 when Vicente hit the city, causing millions of pellets weighing 150 tons being washed ashore at 10 beaches, including Discovery Bay, Lamma Island and Cheung Chau, and fish farms there. The pellets were in six of the seven shipping containers that were blown into the sea, which were owned by Sinopec and China Shipping.

The Marine Department received the report of the plastic spill and dangers posed by floating containers the next day. The department informed only port users of the incident and took no follow-up action. Not until two days later when the department received additional reports of the pellet pollution did it start sending clean-up crews to outlying islands to remove the pellets. However, the department did nothing to call for help from other departments, nor did it think of alerting the public and fish farmers about the pollution. As a result, the department missed the golden opportunity to clean up the mess.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department learned about the incident only on July 26, but its bureau chief Dr Ko Wing-man was not informed until early August. Other authorities were only told when the pellets began washing up off Discovery Bay two days later, prompting environmental concern groups to mobilize volunteers to clean up the coast. The public including fish farmers was kept completely in the dark until the media reported on the pellet spill and ailing fishes last week.

Had fish farmers been told about the crisis, they might have taken contingency measures to clean their fish farms and prevent contamination. Now, some aquaculturists have already complained that their fishes are showing poor appetite and appearing to be ailing. Many consumers are afraid of eating local fishes.

Concern spread quickly through the city over the potential dangers of the pellet spill. I am scratching my head about why the government chose to remain silent and inactive for two weeks instead of alerting the public and other departments for more action to be taken. Lam repeatedly assured the public that the pellets are not toxic in themselves, but there are still fears that the pellets will easily absorb toxins which will then pass into the food chain when fishes swallow the pellets.

Some environmental experts are also quick to warn that toxic substances in the sea could easily attach to the pellets and it is only a matter of time before the spill could turn into an ecological disaster if nothing is done to contain its spread. Again, the government failed to give a full picture about the worst case scenario given that it has only removed slightly more than half of the pellets so far.

There are no doubt flaws in the interdepartmental communication and coordination, and that the government had underestimated the risks leading to the huge lags in response. Even the public and the green groups show a greater sense of crisis and responsibility than the government. The authorities may not have been negligent in the clean-up operation, but it certainly did a botched job in handling the whole crisis.

Apart from keeping the public up to date about the clean-up operation and posting the test results on the fish online, the government should also discuss with the pellet owner the matter of compensation to local fish farmers and others, and to call for the help of experts and green groups to remove the pellets as well as monitor the water quality.

What is more important is that the government should devise a comprehensive crisis management plan to tackle similar crises in the future with a better internal communication system, and a transparent and accountable mechanism. It should also consider reviewing the relevant environmental law so that vessel and goods owners may shoulder more responsibilities.

The author is a current affairs commentator.

(HK Edition 08/10/2012 page3)