Project succeeds in lifting Dongjiang water quality

The Dongjiang, the Guangdong river that supplies most of Hong Kong's fresh water, is significantly cleaner now than in the past, an inspection has found.

An advisory committee that conducted the study attributed the change to a water improvement project commissioned by the Hong Kong and provincial governments in 2003.

"The clarity of the water and lack of smell shows that water quality is much better than it was in the past," said Chan Hon-fai, chairman of the Water Supplies Department's advisory committee on water resources and quality of water supplies.

"There was also no industrial waste or pollution that we could see," Chan said.

The river was once regarded as one of the most polluted in the world. But Chan said signs like the presence of freshwater peach blossom jellyfish in the river showed it was much cleaner.

Known in English as the East River, it supplies about 80 per cent of Hong Kong's fresh water, while providing drinking water to 40 million people in the Pearl River Delta.