INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS
The Hong Kong Port and Maritime Board had its terms of reference modified at the end of the year following the completion of a study on how to strengthen Hong Kong as the preferred international and regional transportation and logistics hub. The responsibility undertaken by the Committee on Logistics Service Development under the board has been transferred to the newly created Hong Kong Logistics Development Council. With this new development, the board will be able to focus its efforts on the strengthening and promotion of Hong Kong as a world port and an international maritime centre in the years ahead.
Harbour Area Treatment Scheme
In 2001, good progress was made with the scheme to provide modern sewage treatment services for the four million people who live around the main harbour area. Stage I of the scheme, which serves the population in Tsuen Wan, Kwai Tsing, Kowloon, Tseung Kwan O, Shau Kei Wan and Chai Wan, was completed at the end of the year, and the full operation of the Stage I system has commenced in phases. Excavation of the 23.6 kilometres of collection tunnels, which are up to 150 metres below the city and between 3.5 and five metres in diameter, in very difficult rock conditions, has been one of Hong Kong's most impressive engineering achievements. It is invisible to the community, but will allow the sewage from the main urban areas on both sides of the harbour to be brought for treatment at the Stonecutters Island Sewage Treatment Plant which began operation in 1997. Some experts advised that this is at present the world's largest and most efficient chemically enhanced primary treatment works. Altogether, the collection tunnels and the treatment works will have a final cost of about $8.2 billion on completion.
In 2000, an International Review Panel appointed by the Government examined whether the original plans for the later stages of work to collect the remaining sewage from Hong Kong Island for proper treatment and to build a long oceanic outfall to discharge the treated effluent remained the most suitable option, given the experience gained with the works so far. The panel comprised six experts in environmental protection, sewage treatment, engineering and economic analysis. They carried out a seven-month review, which included public hearings, and presented their report in November 2000.
The review has recommended that the feasibility of upgrading the treatment system to tertiary level be examined, together with the possibility of permanent discharge of the treated effluent within the harbour, thereby obviating the need to build the proposed long oceanic outfall. Use of a compact sewage treatment technology and four options for further collecting sewage from the remaining catchment areas on Hong Kong Island with additional treatment locations were also proposed. During the year, the Government commissioned consultants to examine these proposals in detail as recommended in the review report. On the basis of the consultants' recommendations, a list of feasible options will be drawn up and the public will be consulted on these feasible options around the end of 2003.
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