Water Woes

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Hong Kong to be spared the salty tap-water woes of Macau
The two cities draw on different sources for their supplies from the mainland
Agnes Lam and Freda Wan in Macau
17 January 2005
South China Morning Post

Hong Kong would not suffer from the salty tap-water problem affecting Macau as the two cities have different sources of supply, the water supplies chief said yesterday.

Macau's tap water turned salty after a rare drought in Guangxi and Guangdong provinces reduced water levels on the Pearl River's tributaries. The salty minerals of sodium and chloride come from seawater that spills back into the river tributaries because of low freshwater levels.

Hong Kong's water supplies director William Ko Chan-gock said the Dongjiang (East River) was the source of the city's supply and its current was stronger than the Xijiang (West River) where Macau drew its supply. Mr Ko said local reservoirs were 70 per cent full and the supply was enough to last six months.

His comments came as Macau families stocking up on bottled water have become a daily routine since the tap water became salty. Macau's water company has suggested residents use bottled water, or mix bottled water with tap water before consumption.

"We use a lot of drinking water because I have a family of four people and a dog," said Wong Ping, a housewife.

Today, the salinity level is forecast to reach 420 milligrams per litre in Macau. The World Health Organisation standard is 250 mg/l. However, the WHO standard sets comfortable taste as a criteria.

Drinking high-salinity water might affect infants, the elderly, or people with certain illnesses such as kidney problems, but would not affect regular adults, said Oscar Chu Wai-man, deputy general manager of Macau Water. The intake of sodium and chlorides varies from person to person.

"Even drinking water of 2,000mg/l salinity could be just fine for a person's health," Mr Chu said.

Philippe Wind, executive director of Macau Water said: "2004 was one of the driest years in the Guangxi province in the past 50 years. Some districts in Guangxi had almost no rainfall in the past two months."

Zhuhai and Zhongshan also suffer from the salinity problem. A hydro-engineering project will start today in the Guizhou , Guangxi and Guangdong provinces to address the problem. It will redirect an estimated 400 million to 700 million cubic metres of water to the West River and North River tributaries.

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Rising tide of trash found in HK waters
Amount of waste collected doubles in decade, says Marine Department
8 June 2009
South China Morning Post

Hong Kong has failed to halt the rising tide of trash dumped into the sea, with the amount collected nearly doubling in a decade, the Marine Department says.

More than 12,900 tonnes of trash was cleared from waters around the city last year, a 5 per cent increase over 2007. This compares with 6,750 tonnes in 1998. Yet the latest figure does not include the 15,500 tonnes collected at beaches by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD).

Lisa Christensen, director of Coastal Cleanup Challenge, an international event to promote ocean protection, said statistics from cleanup events showed that at least three-quarters of the floating trash was produced locally.

"The extensive data we collected over the years indicates Hong Kong, as a society, suffers from a 'pick up after me' syndrome," she said.

"There is a lack of awareness and responsibility for the masses of waste we generate.

"There is also insufficient government support to the recycling industries, and subsequently we are finding enormous amounts of recyclable waste, especially plastics, along Hong Kong's beaches and in the water."

About a quarter of the trash collected last year, nearly 3,000 tonnes, was from Aberdeen and Tin Wan, where fishing vessels unload their catch on to a wholesale market.

Off Central, where a major reclamation project is under way, the volume of trash removed topped 600 tonnes - a rise of 23 per cent on 2006.

The fastest-growing areas for dumping trash are Chek Lap Kok, the airport island, and the Rambler Channel, near the Kwai Chung container port - with 26.4 and 65.5 tonnes last year, an increase of 7.6 and 2.3 times respectively over 2006.

Clarus Chu Ping-shing, a senior marine conservation officer at WWF Hong Kong, said some trash might have been swept in across the border in bad weather.

"Whenever there are heavy downpours and the water current is right, [a massive amount of] rubbish will drift into the city. Much of it is foam, broken furniture, plastic bags and bottles with labels written in simplified Chinese characters," he said.

Mr Chu blamed the poor system of collecting trash on the mainland but said local fishermen and holidaymakers should be responsible for their waste and not throw things into the sea.

He also pointed the finger at the Hong Kong government for adopting a fragmented approach to the problem, with responsibilities for gazetted beaches, non-gazetted beaches, harbour areas, ecologically sensitive areas and underseas assigned to different departments.

The Marine Department is responsible for trash floating outside beaches, and relies on a contractor operating 70 vessels to collect and transport it. The department said it had implemented a series of measures, including publicity and education, to counter the problem.

It is also offering free trash-collection services to vessels and harbour patrols to enforce the littering law. A spokesman said: "The department will flexibly deploy resources to cope with expected and observed situations having regard to the prevailing weather conditions."

A spokesman for the FEHD said it regularly cleaned up beaches.

"The number of workers and the cleansing frequency vary, depending on the actual situation of the individual ungazetted beach and the amount of waste to be cleared. It could be as many as 40 workers and as frequently as twice a week."

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Study urges HK rethink on water amid climate change
5 December 2009
SCMP

Hong Kong should devise a water policy that goes beyond cross-border negotiations over supply and pricing in light of rising climate change threats and competition for the precious resource, a local think tank says.

Hong Kong and Macau should be involved with the Pearl River Water Resources Commission and work with other delta cities to avoid future conflicts and carry out research into adapting to climate change, it says.

The think-tank also suggests a task force be set up to review water policy issues. But it says increasing water tariffs is not politically feasible now but is desirable in the longer term once the public recognises the importance of water security.

The Civic Exchange study, "Liquid Assets: Water Security and Management in the Pearl River Basin and Hong Kong", was released yesterday.

The study says as the PRD basin is one of a few relatively healthy river systems on the mainland, regional water resources management and co-operation should be stepped up to tackle pollution and climate change threats.

But the think tank warns that Hong Kong faces at least two challenges towards this goal. One is the lack of a genuine water policy and the other is its detachment from its Guangdong counterparts in regional collaboration.

"The government does not have a water policy. The only policy is the negotiation of price and quantity. It is not involved in the long-term management of water resources," Christine Loh Kung-wai, chief executive officer of Civic Exchange, said.

She said the "supply-led attitude" of officials in water resources planning meant the policy only focused on the "contract, piping and cleansing" of imported Dongjiang water, a guarantee given by Beijing since the 1960s. Loh is also concerned about the intensifying competition for water along the Dongjiang watershed.

A scramble for water could evolve into conflicts between cities, especially in times of drought or the increasing demands of economic development.

Loh said it did no good to the region as a whole if the cities held a competitive attitude rather than co-operating to manage water demand and supply in the long term.

A Development Bureau spokesman said the total water management strategy promulgated in 2007 also addressed the water supply issues relating to climate change and low rainfall.

"The strategy puts emphasis on containing the growth of water demand through conservation while water supply management will also be strengthened," he said.

The spokesman said a study was being done to identify how to adapt the use of water resources to climate change.

As to regional co-operation, he said Hong Kong had good relations with Guangdong authorities, including the Pearl River Water Resources Commission.