SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1974
SEWAGE TREATMENT STUDY MAKES HEADWAY
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GOOD PROGRESS IS BEING MADE ON A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY RELATING TO MODERN TECHNIQUES IN BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT OF SEWAGE NOW BEING CARRIED OUT AT THE SHEK WU HUI PILOT SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT.
INITIAL RESULTS ARE DESCRIBED AS +ENCOURAGING+ AND THE FIRST REPORT ON THE EXPERIMENTS IS EXPECTED TO BE SUBMITTED TO THE AUTHORITY CONCERNED WITHIN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS.
THE $13.5 MILLION PLANT WAS OPENED IN JUNE. APART FROM PROVIDING COMPREHENSIVE SEWAGE TREATMENT FACILITIES FOR THE 12,500 PEOPLE IN SHEK WU HUI, IT ALSO SERVES AS AN EXPERIMENTAL AND TRAINING CENTRE FOR MODERN TECHNIQUES IN THE BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT OF SEWAGE. THIS IS PART OF THE GOVERNMENT'S CONTINUING EFFORT IN THE FIGHT AGAINST ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION.
THE STUDY AND THE TRAINING OF THE REQUIRED STAFF ARE SCHEDULED TO BE COMPLETED IN TWO YEARS.
UNDER TRAINING AT PRESENT ARE 16 P.W.D. STAFF MEMBERS. THE IR WORK INCLUDES SAMPLING, WORKING UP THE PROCESSES AND CONTROL OF MACHINES.
SINCE THE OPENING OF THE PLANT, EXPERIMENTS HAVE BEEN CARRIED OUT ON THREE OF THE FOUR BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES INCORPORATED IN THE WORKS. THEY ARE DIFFUSED AIR AERATION, HIGH RATE BIOLOGICAL FILTRATION AND OXIDATION PONDS.
EXPERIMENTS ON THE FOURTH ONE, KNOWN AS DIRECT OXYGENATION,
WILL BE CARRIED OUT IN A MONTH OR TWO.
THE MAIN FUNCTION OF THESE BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES IS TO USE MICRO-ORGANISMS TO ASSIMILATE THE POLLUTANTS IN THE SEWAGE. BY THIS PROCESS THE REMOVAL OF ABOUT 90 PER CENT OF THE POLLUTANTS CAN BE ACHIEVED.
+JUDGING FROM THE AFFLUENTS DISCHARGED FROM THE PLANT, THE INITIAL RESULTS ARE ENCOURAGING,+ A SPOKESMAN FOR THE DRAINAGE WORKS DIVISION OF THE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT SAID.
HE ADDED THAT THE FOUR BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT PROCESSES WOULD BE EXTENSIVELY STUDIED TO ASSESS THEIR SUITABILITY UNDER CONDITIONS PREVAILING IN HONG KONG.
IF THEY PROVE TO BE ECONOMICALLY VIABLE, THE SPOKESMAN SAID, INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM EXPERIMENTS ON THE VARIOUS TREATMENT PROCESSES WILL BE USED IN THE DESIGN AND OPERATION OF FUTURE SEWAGE TREATMENT WORKS FOR ABATING POLLUTION AND SO CREATE A BETTER ENVIRONMENT FOR HONG KONG.
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