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■屯門和荃灣14個泳灘恐受污染而被迫關閉。 資料圖片
屯門望后石污水處理廠設施8月25日下午出現故障，屯門和荃灣14個泳灘恐受污染而被迫關閉。肇事污水廠在故障發生後未能有效截流，導致大量污水排放到本港海域，引發小型生態災難，反映環保設施管理和安全應變機制存在漏洞。當局須徹查原因，追究責任，並堵塞漏洞，防止事故重演。
專家指出，今次流出的污水涉及人類糞便，內含厭氧菌、大腸桿菌或其他病原體，嚴重影響水質，不但產生臭味，破壞近岸景觀，接觸這些受污染海水，更可能會感染細菌引致發炎、腹瀉或嘔吐，嚴重者更可以造成入侵性感染。為保障泳客健康，屯門和荃灣多個泳灘須臨時關閉。令人關注的是，海水污染有可能引致海洋生物大量死亡，特別是新界西海域是中華白海豚生活的地方，事件無可避免會影響本港生態環境。
Probe into the sewage leakage incident and strengthen management of facilities
The Pillar Point Sewage Treatment Works in Tuen Mun suffered a system breakdown in the afternoon on 25 August, forcing 14 beaches along the coast from Tuen Mun to Tsuen Wan to close for fear of water contamination. The sewage plant involved failed to stop the leakage of sewage when the incident occurred and so a large volume of sewage drained into the Hong Kong waters, which triggered a small scale ecological disaster. This reflects the inadequacies in the management of environmental protection facilities and contingency mechanisms. The authorities should probe into the causes of the incident, punish those responsible and plug the loopholes in order to prevent the same kind of incidents from happening again.
According to expert opinion, the sewage leaked in this incident contained human faeces which carried anaerobic bacteria, E. coli and other kinds of pathogens that would seriously affect water quality. It would not only create odour, but also damage coastal waterscape. Worse still, anyone in contact with these microorganisms in the contaminated water may run the risk of having inflammation, diarrhea or vomit; and in more serious cases, invasive infection may also take place. To safeguard the health of swimmers, a number of beaches along the coast from Tuen Mun to Tsuen Wan had to be temporarily closed. What concerns people is that sea water contamination may lead to the death of a large number of ocean species, in particular off the coast of Western New Territories where the Chinese white dolphins live. The incident inevitably affects the ecology of Hong Kong.■Translation and Learning Points by Tung-ming [ tungming23@gmail.com ]（節自香港《文匯報》2014年8月27日）
Learning Points:
Vocabulary: 可留意下列幾個與污染有關的字眼
Contamination(名詞)： 污染，與pollution相似，來自動詞 contaminate-弄髒、弄污或毒化
Sewage(名詞)：污水、污廢物，帶有家居或工業廢物的水道污水
Infection(名詞)：感染，由細菌或病毒引起的人體感染、傳染病
Exercise: 試在上面三個字中選一個填在下面段落空格
According to the report, the ____1.____was caused by swimming in water contaminated with ____2.____. The report also gave analysis of the causes of ____3._____ and recommendations on reducing sea pollution. It is suggested that the government should strengthen the ____4.___ treatment system of the city so that ___5.___ can be reduced and risks of human _____6._____ can be avoided.
Answers:
1.infection 2. sewage 3.contamination 4. sewage 5.contamination 6.infection
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