Untreated poultry blood could be piped into Victoria Harbour from the future main slaughterhouse in Western because of inadequate water treatment facilities, the Democratic Party warned yesterday. Facilities in the Western Wholesale Food Market, being converted into a central slaughterhouse, were unable to handle the volume, members said. The mini-treatment plant, where sewage and waste water is filtered before draining into the harbour, will serve the slaughterhouse and the neighbouring vegetable and fruit market. Democrat Chan Kwok-leung, who inspected the facilities with colleagues yesterday, described the filtering system as 'primitive'. 'We will see a red harbour when the slaughterhouse is in full operation as more than 10,000 ducks and geese will be slaughtered in the market each day.' But the Agriculture and Fisheries Department said it planned to redevelop the plant to expand its capacity, adding that the Environmental Protection Department was satisfied with the system. The department will have at least three months to complete the upgrading because only one duck wholesaler has passed new hygiene standards to handle imported live ducks and geese under the new slaughterhouse scheme. The wholesaler can start operating by the end of next month at the earliest, handling up to 2,000 ducks and geese a day. Other wholesalers are still locked in compensation negotiations with the department and most have not submitted applications for licences. The scheme was announced last month and was intended to take effect from next Tuesday. It requires all water birds to be slaughtered and chilled or frozen at the Western market. Poultry wholesalers are due to meet department officials today and warned they might sue the Government if it refused to pay compensation.
