The government will rezone land adjacent to the sewage-treatment plant on Stonecutters Island by 2009 for an upgrade to show the administration's firm commitment to cleaning up the harbour, the environment minister said yesterday.
The pledge by Sarah Liao Sau-tung came after a political party accused officials of delaying the provision of land for the upgrade, which it said should start immediately instead of awaiting a further review due to begin in 2011.
The dispute arose amid officials' intensive lobbying for the legislature's approval of a blanket 10-year sewage-fee rise to finance the operation of the Harbour Area Treatment Scheme Stage 2A project.
The project will collect the remaining untreated sewage from Hong Kong Island and transfer it to the Stonecutters treatment works through an underground tunnel. The works will cost about HK$8 billion.
But green activists were unhappy with the lack of a firm official commitment for implementing a further upgrade, which would use biological means to remove excess nutrients. The Stage 2B upgrade would cost an extra HK$10.8 billion.
Officials had said they would carry out a review of the project when the upgrade was needed in 2011, depending on population trends and the extent of compliance with water-quality objectives.
In an earlier document submitted to the legislature, officials also highlighted the difficulty of speeding up the upgrade, saying land for it would not be available by 2010.
