ENG-2003 — Page 350

THE ENVIRONMENT

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Sewer connections to individual properties are still in progress. Improvements in several parts of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories continue. Under the Water Pollution Control (Sewerage) Regulation, the EPD requires house owners to connect their wastewater pipes to new public sewers. In 2003, wastewater from premises housing 5 000 people was directed to public sewers so as to avoid water pollution. Since the regulation came into force at the end of 1995, wastewater from premises housing 56 000 people has been connected to public sewers.

Sewage Charges

All water users who discharge their sewage to public sewers pay a basic sewage charge. In addition, 30 trades and industries whose effluent strength well exceeds that of domestic sewage also pay a trade effluent surcharge to reflect the additional cost for treating their stronger effluent. These charges aim at recovering partially the operation and maintenance costs of sewage collection, treatment, and disposal facilities. The Government continues to provide funds for capital costs for these facilities from its Capital Works Reserve Fund. The household sewage charge in 2003 was a modest $1.20 per cubic metre of water consumed, with an exemption for the first 12 cubic metres consumed in a four-month billing period. As a one-off concession in the 2002-03 financial year, the sewage charge payable by each registered customer during the financial year was reduced by an amount not exceeding $200 and $800 for domestic and non-domestic purposes respectively, whereas the trade effluent surcharge payable was reduced by a flat rate of 30 per cent.

In addition, owing to the SARS outbreak, the Government decided that the levels of the sewage charge and the trade effluent surcharge should be reduced consecutively for a four-month billing period starting from August 2003, as part of the package of relief measures to help the community tide over the difficulties caused by the disease. The sewage charge payable by each registered customer in the billing period covering the four months from August to November 2003 has been reduced by an amount not exceeding $67 and $533 for domestic and non-domestic accounts, respectively. The trade effluent surcharge payable during the four-month billing period has been reduced by a flat rate of 60 per cent.

Livestock Waste Pollution

Indiscriminate disposal of waste from the livestock industry was formerly one of the main causes of pollution in streams and rivers in the New Territories. Before the livestock waste control scheme began in 1987, the pollution load from livestock waste equivalent to raw sewage from more than 1.6 million people — ended up in Hong Kong's rivers and eventually the sea. Since 1988, the Waste Disposal Ordinance has banned livestock-keeping in new towns and environmentally sensitive areas. Where they are allowed, livestock farms must have proper waste treatment systems. Under the control scheme, livestock farmers who chose to continue in business applied for a grant and a loan to help pay for pollution-control facilities. Since the start of the scheme in 1987, about $63 million has been paid out in capital grants. Farmers who chose to cease business applied for an allowance, and about $883 million has been paid. Livestock waste pollution has been reduced by 97 per cent since the inception of the control scheme.

The Government has been providing a free livestock waste collection service since 1996. A monthly average of about 5 178 tonnes of livestock waste was collected in 2003.