LOOKING out over Victoria Harbour from a soaring office tower in Central, it might not seem credible that some of Hong Kong's worst polluters are pigs - the four-footed kind.
The Environmental Protection Department has identified pigs as one of the worst sources of water pollution.
Effluent produced by the territory's estimated 350,000 pigs is the staggering equivalent of that created by 1.1 million people. The rivers and streams of the New Territories are a seething, putrid testimony to this.
But the Government's pollution watchdogs say they are finally winning the battle against porcine polluters. 'Pollution from livestock waste will be almost non-existent by the year 2001,' department principal protection officer Patrick Lei said.
'So far, the Government has paid over $720 million to farmers as compensation to stop raising pigs.
The Government first acknowledged the seriousness of the pig problem when it instituted a 10-year livestock waste scheme in 1987. The project has reduced waste pouring into streams and rivers by 70 per cent.