THE ENVIRONMENT
412
Victoria Harbour Water Control Zone. With the community's growing expectations for a better environment, the need for a cost-effective, secure and environmentally acceptable waste management programme has been recognised. Special categories of waste also need tighter control, not only with regard to disposal but also storage, transport and treatment. The disposal arrangements must not add to air or water pollution.
The comprehensive control on the handling and disposal of chemical waste commenced in May 1993 with the opening of the chemical waste treatment centre and full imple- mentation of the Waste Disposal (Chemical Waste) (General) Regulation. Hong Kong is now able to stop the widespread malpractice of dumping bulk chemical waste into the territory's sewers and surface waters, in this way improving the water quality in the receiving waters, particularly the inner harbour.
Consideration is being given to the control of other special categories of waste, including clinical waste, decomposing carcasses and various types of sludge.
The Environment of New Towns
The development of new towns in what were formerly rural areas of small fishing and market towns has helped to sustain economic growth in Hong Kong. To some extent, the territory's new towns face the same environmental problems as the old urban areas. Although they have been better planned with more space, sewerage and waste disposal facilities, water pollution exists in rivers, streams and the sea due to increased human --activities. The inland and coastal waters of all new towns have now been declared Water Control Zones (WCZ) and discharges in these areas are controlled by the Water Pollution Control Ordinance.
Nevertheless, the ability of Tolo Harbour, a landlocked inlet with a poor flushing capacity, to assimilate pollutants is very limited. Most of the pollution comes from the two municipal treatment works at Sha Tin and Tai Po, effluent from industrial and commercial areas reaching storm water drains, sewage discharges from unsewered village areas, mariculture zones and leachate from the Shuen Wan Landfill. The decline in water quality now appears to have been halted, though it still remains unsatisfactory. A multi-point action plan is now being implemented to improve the situation. Many unauthorised or expedient connections have been rectified through the enforcement of the ordinance. Direct sewage discharges from the villages into the surface water are gradually being eliminated by the implementation of the Tolo Harbour Sewerage Master Plan. The effluent from the Sha Tin sewage treatment works is to be exported through a long tunnel and discharged into the environmentally less sensitive waters of Victoria Harbour. The first stage of this scheme, dealing with the effluent from Sha Tin, is scheduled for commissioning in 1995.
Another pollution source in Tolo Harbour is the high concentration of heavy metals in industrial discharges. These have upset the performance of the government's biological sewage treatment works. With the increasing statutory controls, the heavy metal loadings entering the sewerage network of the Tolo Harbour WCZ have been reduced by more than half and continue to decline.
Rural Areas and the Sea
While some rural areas are badly polluted, others offer tremendous opportunities for conservation and recreation.