AFTER TWO DECADES of unparalleled economic achievement, the Pearl River Delta is staring down a dimly lit path for the next 20 years of its development.
At least that is the general conclusion of the Guangdong government, which this year issued its master plan for conservation over the next two decades. Called the Pearl River Delta Environmental Planning Guidelines, it outlines the challenges facing the region in conserving water, treating waste and improving air quality until 2020.
The task is daunting. Air pollution is getting significantly worse, with increasing occurrence of smog, declining visibility and sustained periods of poor air quality. Last year, total recorded sulphur dioxide emissions in Guangdong exceeded the one million tonne mark for the first time. Alexis Lau Kai-hon, assistant professor at the University of Science and Technology, believes the region's skies will get worse before they get better. 'In the past, pollutants could be easily blown away - even under weak wind situations. But the region's pollutants are simply too heavy now to be dispersed, and poor air quality has increasingly become the norm.'
The bright side of this is that it has become impossible to ignore the shared responsibility that exists for this situation among regional governments. Concerted efforts are being made on both sides of the border to rein in the growth of air pollution, and serious money is now being thrown at the problem.
Cross-border co-operation in protecting the environment dates back to 1999, when Hong Kong and Guangdong jointly launched a regional air quality study. It was successful in identifying sources of pollution, projecting future trends and crafting strategies to tackle common problems. In 2002, the two governments agreed to cut total emission of four key air pollutants - nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, volatile organic compounds and respirable suspended particles - by between 20 and 55 per cent from the levels recorded in 1997.
Concrete measures have been put in place on both sides, including a massive switch from diesel to LPG for Hong Kong taxis and minibuses. So far, all of the city's 18,000 taxis have been converted to the cleaner fuel, significantly improving roadside pollution levels.
