ENG-2006 — Page 352

288 The Environment

regulation came into force at the end of 1995, public sewers have been put in place to serve 145 200 people.

Sewage Charges

All water users who discharge their sewage to public sewers have to pay a basic sewage charge in accordance with the polluter pays principle. 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, while the Government provides funds for construction. The Government's capital investment in this sector is projected to amount to about $20 billion over the next 10 years to build HATS Stage 2A and other new sewage collection and treatment systems, but this is contingent upon the community being willing to share the operating cost in accordance with the polluter pays principle. In December 2006, the Government announced proposals to increase the sewage charge for handling domestic waste water in a step-wise manner over a 10-year time frame. Under these proposals the average bill for domestic accounts would rise from $11 per month now, to $12 per month in 2007, and gradually to $27 per month in 10 years' time. Even after the projected increase Hong Kong's sewage charge will remain among the lowest of the major cities of developed economies.

Livestock Waste Pollution

The Waste Disposal Ordinance bans livestock-keeping in new towns and environmentally sensitive areas. Where they are allowed, livestock farms must have proper waste treatment systems. The Government provides a free livestock waste collection service which collected about a monthly average of 4 694 tonnes of waste during the year.

From the public health and environmental protection points of views, livestock farming in urbanised Hong Kong is not sustainable in the long term. To address the problem, the Government has introduced licence surrender schemes to encourage poultry and pig farmers to cease poultry and pig keeping permanently. Livestock farmers are given ex-gratia payments and the schemes are entirely voluntary. The poultry scheme was introduced in mid-2005 and poultry farmers have up to one year to decide whether or not to join the scheme. The licence surrender scheme for pig farmers was introduced in 2006 and the scheme was open for one year also.

Bathing Beaches

The Government has adopted strict standards for water quality control to protect the health of swimmers at bathing beaches. These standards indicate the pollution level measured in terms of E.coli (the bacterium that can indicate the presence of sewage). The following table shows how beaches were classified in 2006. Beaches in the 'good' and 'fair' categories meet the Government's water quality objective for bathing. In 2006, over 80 per cent of the bathing beaches met the water quality objective.