Hong Kong pours out 5.5 billion bathtubs of water a year and it ‘needs a plan to reduce waste’
City relies on Dongjiang in mainland China for 80 per cent of its water, with a price that has progressively increased in last decade, currently paying HK$4.22 billion a year regardless of how much gets used
Hong Kong continues to face a water supply crisis and the government has failed to introduce urgent water tariff reforms which can significantly reduce wastage, campaigners have said.
Evan Auyang, chairman of Civic Exchange, said: “It seems like we have a lot of water but really we don’t,” he said. “The Dongjiang arrangement creates ‘the illusion of plenty’. But the price has gone up significantly since 2008, so this is why we need to look at how much is being wasted urgently.”
The city relies on Dongjiang in Guangdong province for 80 per cent of its water, with a price that has been progressively increasing in the last decade. Hong Kong currently pays HK$4.22 billion every year for an agreed amount of water from Dongjiang, regardless of how much it uses.
Meanwhile the city’s total annual consumption in 2015 reached 1.25 billion cubic metres – equivalent to 5.5 billion full bathtubs – about 21 per cent higher than the global average.