One glance across the harbour any morning of the week will confirm the deadly seriousness of Hong Kong's pollution problem. Despite all government efforts in the past, and the cross-boundary agreement with Guangdong to tackle the pollution sweeping across the Pearl River Delta, air quality is getting steadily worse.
The medical bill for pollution-related illnesses cost taxpayers $1.3 billion in 2000 alone. We can only guess at this year's figures. Hospital wards and doctors' surgeries are packed with patients suffering from a range of respiratory diseases, and if that were not sufficient cause for concern, we also have to face the fact that some of the costs of the smog choking our city are simply not quantifiable.
We cannot so easily assess the loss to the economy from overseas corporations who decide to set up elsewhere rather than subject their employees to these health risks.
Before this year is out, the number of hours in which the air pollution index has been above 100 has risen to more than 650 hours, nearly three times the figure in 2002. Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao Sau-tung admits that the problem will be with us for a long time. The only commitment in the Hong Kong-Guangdong accord, signed in April 2002, is to bring back emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and other airborne pollutants to 1997 levels - when air quality was still far from satisfactory. But the real worry is that even this modest target may not be attainable in the six years the agreement has left to run.
Whether we can achieve that goal depends to a great extent on how actively the Guangdong authorities can police emissions. The key to progress there is in convincing a fast-developing region that it truly is in its interests to put air-quality at the top of its list of priorities.
Here in Hong Kong, we have made reasonable progress in cutting exhaust fumes, encouraging people to use public transport and alerting drivers to the anti-social effects of sitting in stationary cars with the engine running. The introduction of LPG taxis and ultra-low diesel has greatly reduced particulates and nitrogen oxide. Yet there is still more each of us can do - a tiny gesture such as switching off unnecessary lights in the home can make a difference to the city's power supply, for example.
