Public consultation for hazardous items management law to start in January

The government plans to carry out a public consultation on the law for the management and storage of hazardous items on January 23.
Yesterday, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Second Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly (AL), the Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak, revealed that the SAR government still intends to handle all types of hazardous items with a single law.
In the region, hazardous items are classified in nine groups. The government wants to gather all nine groups into the one place for centralized treatment.
Previously, local authorities announced its decision to transform the current Desafio Jovem Teen Challenge Center into the city’s permanent hazardous items storage.
Wong anticipated that the public works department will initiate the construction of the storage facility soon, and will also carry out a public consultation period for the plan of the project.
Before Macau establishes a law to regulate hazardous items issues, and before the permanent storage is built, the government authority will collect hazardous items from different construction sites into one place for treatment.
In order to allow the local community to better understand the storage of hazardous items, in January next year, the government will invite experts from mainland China to give a talk to public department employees and other groups on the subject.
Also yesterday, the Second Standing Committee of the AL had another detailed reading of the recently passed new law concerning fire safety in buildings and specific locations.
During the meeting, government representatives responded to approximately 20 questions raised by the lawmakers.
According to the government’s explanation, locations including tunnels, piers, and storage spaces are subjected to this law.