IN a move welcomed by environmentalists but condemned by grassroots organisations, Hong Kong people will have to pay sewage charges from next August.
The Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands, Tony Eason, yesterday unveiled the long-expected sewage charges, which will work out at 47 per cent of each user's water bill - or $15 per month extra for an average public housing estate household.
About 17 per cent of households pay no water charges and so will not pay the sewage levy.
The levy is based on a fixed cost for sewage services and a volume charge which will vary depending on how much waste is produced.
Industrial and commercial users will also have to pay a surcharge to cover the costs of treating their more heavily polluted waste.
This will represent between 0.002 and 0.5 per cent of a company's production costs, and is likely to hit printing and dying firms hardest.
Mr Eason said major cities elsewhere charged for sewage treatment: ''It is now our turn to do so.'' But the proposal came under fire from the lobby group the Hong Kong People's Council on Public Housing Policy, whose chief secretary Virginia Ip Chiu-ping said: ''It's unfair the public shoulder such a charge.
