AN inter-departmental working group should be set up to look into the flooding which brought havoc to the northern New Territories last week, an elected legislator said yesterday. Tsang Kin-shing, representing the Primary Production, Power and Construc-tion functional constituency, said environmental destruction was to blame for the flooding. A working group should assess the degree of damage and recommend solutions, he said. Mr Tsang put forward his suggestion in a meeting with Dr Lawrence Lee Hay-yue, director of the Agriculture and Fisheries Department. He said the Planning, Environment and Lands Branch, the Drainage Services Department, Lands Department and Territory Development Department could sit in the group. Last week, Typhoon Sibyl brought 200 millimetres of rain to the territory, causing severe damage to farms in the New Territories. Mr Tsang said the policy of giving each farming household $4,860 in a one-off rescue package was unfair. 'The authority should think of offering them compensation as well, because it was its failure to introduce precautionary measures to prevent flooding that led to the severe loss,' he said.
