| Background
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| 5.2.2.1 |
For
many years Hong Kong has experienced a rapidly
expanding population and new development
which has outpaced the speed at which sewage
and other wastewater treatment infrastructure
could be provided. As a result, there is
a long history of using coastal waters to
disperse and dilute untreated sewage, livestock
wastes and wastewaters from industrial and
commercial premises. In response to the
growing pollutant inputs and the reduction
in remaining assimilative capacity of the
receiving environment, the Government has
invested increasing amounts of capital into
the development of new infrastructure for
capturing and treating such discharges as
well as enforcing a suite of environmental
protection regulations to control pollution
of the marine environment.
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| Sewerage
Master Plans
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| 5.2.2.2 |
A
total of 16 Sewerage Master Plans have been
developed across Hong Kong to provide for
the sewerage infrastructure required to
collect sewage in each catchment area and
route it to treatment facilities. Although
the plans themselves were all completed
between 1989 and 1996, the infrastructure
works required to meet the plans' recommendations
are in various stages of progress. Current
progress in implementing the SMPs in terms
of their effect on enhancing assimilative
capacity and in relation to current pollution
problems and capacity constraints in each
of the WCZs is reviewed in Annex
F4.
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| Strategic
Sewage Disposal Scheme (SSDS)
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| 5.2.2.3 |
The
SSDS is Hong Kong's largest sewerage and
sewage treatment infrastructure project
and is designed to provide improvements
in the level of sewerage in the main urban
areas of Hong Kong. The scheme comprises
the construction of several large underground
sewage collection tunnels which will convey
sewage to a central treatment works at Stonecutters
Island before treated effluent is pumped
under Victoria Harbour to a deep sea outfall
in the marine waters south of Lamma Island.
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| 5.2.2.4 |
It
is expected that the problems associated with
high levels of faecal pollution in Victoria
Harbour and adjacent WCZs will be partially
alleviated when Stage I of the SSDS is commissioned.
This stage will involve the collection and
treatment of the majority of sewage currently
being discharged to Victoria Harbour (in the
main, untreated) from Kowloon, although the
treated effluent will continue to be discharged
to the harbour from an interim outfall at
Stonecutters Island. Due to engineering and
contractual difficulties with the project,
it is not expected that Stage I (costing over
$8 billion) will be operative until 2002.
However, it is thought that the full implementation
of the infrastructure project (ie Stages II-IV)
will be needed to permanently solve the problem
of this source of pollution in Victoria Harbour.
Stage II (scheduled for completion in 2008)
will result in the additional collection and
treatment of Hong Kong Island loads and their
discharge to marine waters south of Lamma
Island via a long sea outfall. Stages III
and IV will collect additional sewage flows
from the southwest side and the northern shore
of Hong Kong and route them to the Stonecutters
Island treatment works. |
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