Sewage plant upgrade will make Hong Kong harbour cleaner with 70pc of Island's waste to receive enhanced chemical treatment
The first of eight Hong Kong Island sewage works has begun transferring waste water to a centralised facility on Stonecutters Island, where it will be chemically treated and discharged into western Victoria Harbour.
Seven others that are being upgraded along the north and southwest of the island will be commissioned in the next eight weeks, completing the final stretch of a six-year HK$17.5 billion scheme that drainage officials believe will make the harbour cleaner.
Edwin Tong Ka-hung, head of the Drainage Services Department, called the commissioning of the new Wan Chai East plant an "important milestone" for the upgraded Harbour Area Treatment Scheme. The first stage of the scheme was completed in 2011 connecting most of Kowloon, as well as Chai Wan and Shau Kei Wan, to the island.
The completion of the upgraded part will mean 70 per cent of the city's waste will receive chemically-enhanced treatment before being pumped out into the harbour.
"This treatment will remove 99 per cent of the content," said Tong.The expanded plant will be able to handle 2.5 million cubic metres of sewage, equivalent to 1,000 standard-sized swimming pools, daily.
"The plants at North Point and Central will soon be transferred to Stonecutters Island and by November, the whole network should be complete," said Tong. "No more untreated waste [from Hong Kong Island] will be released into the harbour."
Asked whether he would respond to calls to upgrade the plant's capabilities to a more advanced biological treatment, Tong cited cost concerns and the need for further study. "We will monitor the water quality of the harbour after the scheme is complete … to see if it will be necessary to upgrade to secondary treatment," he said.
The upgrade was recommended by an international panel in 2002 but shelved after the severe acute respiratory syndrome crisis on cost grounds.
