Hong Kong’s five biggest drinking water reservoirs found to contain harmful chemicals
Greenpeace samples reveal the Dongjiang, a river in Guangdong province, could be main source of PFCs for city’s supply
The research also found that the three reservoirs holding water from the Dongjiang, a river in Guangdong province, contained higher levels of perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, than the other two reservoirs that only collected rainwater.
Researchers suspected that the river could be one of the main sources of PFCs in Hong Kong’s drinking water, as there was no direct agricultural, industrial or household pollution near where the samples were collected.
They urged the government to conduct regular tests on the levels of new man-made chemicals in drinking water to keep track of changes in the water’s quality.
They found that Plover Cove contained the highest levels of PFCs – between 8 nanograms per litre and 15.4ng/l. The lowest levels among the samples was in Shek Pik, from 1ng/l to around 1.2ng/l.
READ MORE: Hong Kong’s lead-in-drinking-water crisis: everything you need to know
Greenpeace senior campaigner Kate Lin Pui-yee said that although there was no international standard regulating PFC levels in water, an international convention recommended a complete prohibition of using the compounds in manufacturing.
As PFCs are both waterproof and oilproof, they were widely used in manufacturing clothes for outdoor use, semiconductors and liquid-crystal display monitors.