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|1. Project Description|
Hong Kong (HK), a predominantly ethnic Chinese community, is accustomed to the availability of fresh produce. This dietary partiality is also reflected in its preference for "warm" meat, particularly pork, instead of 'chilled' meat as is the norm in other developed countries. To satisfy this tradition demand, live animals imported from China, are slaughtered daily in five existing abattoirs located at Kennedy Town, Cheung Sha Wan, Tsuen Wan, Yuen Long and Cheung Chau. Due to the rapid expansion of HK since these abattoirs were built some decades ago, all except Cheung Chau are now located in Urban areas.
Hence, for both environmental and economic reasons, the Government took a decision in 1995 to urgently reprovision the three main abattoirs in Kennedy Town, Cheung Sha Wan and Yuen Long to the outskirts of Sheung Shui where a modern, centralised facility was to be built by 1999. The site was chosen because of its isolation from built up areas; convenience to rail and road networks for the delivery of animals and distribution of fresh meat; and its adjacent sewage treatment plant which would have capacity to assist in the essential process of waste water treatment.
The intent of the new slaughterhouse is to provide a stable and adequate
supply of fresh warm meat to the community whilst ensuring the highest
international standards for hygiene and safety, operational efficiency
and environmental management.
In recognition of the operational complexities and environmental risks,
a four phase 266 days commissioning period was included in the contract
requiring the contractor to work closely with the operator whereby the
contractor is still responsible to ensure the complex design performs both
systematically and systemically in accord with the stringent performance
|2. Design Considerations|
The new slaughterhouse is designed to meet the highest international standards for hygiene, i.e. European Community (EC) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Standard. To achieve this, new provisions have been incorporated as follows:
2.3 Operational Efficiency
|3. Environmental Management|
Environmental goals are to ensure full compliance with the latest environmental guidelines and regulations from the EPD for waste water, air, odour, noise and solid waste and achieving energy efficient targets. Environmental impact assessment was carried out in 1995 before the design stage while environmental management system has been incorporated both in the construction phase and in the future operational phase. These aspects will be under continued monitoring and review by both the operator and DSD/EPD. The importance of a systemic approach integrating the environmental intent with often conflicting operational needs was a major challenge facing the team. The more innovative aspects of the design are described below.
3.3 Odour Control and Gas Emission
3.4 Noise Mitigation
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