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The Environment | 299

facilities on a site adjacent to the existing Stonecutters Island Sewage Treatment Plant will be built. The timing for this depends on a review in 2010/11. Both phases, however, are subject to public approval. The community has to agree that, while the Government will meet the capital costs, the full operating costs will be recovered through charges for sewage services in accordance with the polluter pays principle.

The Government will start the Environmental Impact Assessment study and the planning and design of the tunneling works for Stage 2A in 2006. More details of the HATS are available on the 'A Clean Harbour

Harbour for Hong Kong' website, www.cleanharbour.gov.hk.

Apart from HATS, the Government has spent a further $12.3 billion on other sewerage schemes since 1991 and it will spend another $4.7 billion on schemes over the next five years.

Sewerage Master Plans

Hong Kong is divided into 16 areas each covered by a sewerage master plan. The improvement works recommended under these plans are being carried out in a phased programme. Many have been completed while others are being implemented progressively.

In the light of revised population forecasts and development proposals, the sewerage master plans for Yuen Long, Kam Tin, Central and East Kowloon, Tuen Mun, Tsing Yi, the Outlying Islands, Hong Kong Island, North District and Tolo Harbour areas have been reviewed and proposals for further upgrading works are being pursued on a priority basis.

Sewer connections to individual properties are still in progress. Improvements in several parts of Hong Kong continue. Under the Water Pollution Control (Sewerage) Regulation, the EPD is empowered to direct house owners to connect their waste water pipes to new public sewers. In 2005, public sewers were laid to serve an estimated population of 14 000 people. Since the regulation came into force at the end of 1995, public sewers have been put in place to serve 140 000 people.

Sewage Charges

All water users who discharge their sewage to public sewers have to pay a basic sewage charge. Also, 30 trades and industries whose effluent strength well exceeds that of domestic sewage need to pay a trade effluent surcharge to reflect the additional cost of treating their stronger effluent. These charges aim to recover 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 2005 remained at a modest level of $1.20 per cubic metre of water consumed, with an exemption for the first 12 cubic metres consumed in a four-month billing period.

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