ENG-2009 — Page 345

The Environment 277

Intruder Alarm and Neighbourhood Noise

The Police handles complaints about intruder alarms and neighbourhood noise from domestic premises and public places.

Water Quality and Sewerage

Water pollution has increased with urban development and population growth. The lack of proper treatment for most of the sewage from older urban areas around Victoria Harbour resulted in poor water quality there but since the Harbour Area Treatment Scheme (HATS) Stage 1 went into operation at the end of 2001, there has been a marked improvement. The Government is now implementing HATS Stage 2A which will collect and properly treat the remaining 25 per cent of sewage around the harbour.

In addition, pollution control at source has yielded positive results, and river quality has also improved. The percentage of rivers in the 'good' and 'excellent' categories increased from 34 per cent in 1986 to 84 per cent in 2009, and the percentage in the 'bad' and 'very bad' categories fell from 45 per cent in 1986 to 6 per cent in 2009.

The Government commissioned a study to review and develop Hong Kong's marine water quality objectives in October 2008. The marine water quality objectives were introduced under the Water Pollution Control Ordinance and gradually applied to the 10 water control zones from 1982 to 1996. The study aims to review the existing water quality objectives in light of the local conditions, overseas best practices and scientific advances; and to examine the technical attainability and potential socio-economic implications of any proposed changes to the water quality objectives.

Views from the public and stakeholders on the study findings will be collected through a two-stage public engagement exercise. The first stage public engagement, which lasted for three months, commenced in September to seek views from the public on the issues to be addressed and the review approaches. The second stage public engagement will be held after any proposed changes to the water quality objectives are formulated.

Sewage Treatment and Disposal

At present, the public sewerage system serves 93 per cent of the population and collects about 2.7 million cubic metres of waste water every day. About 70 per cent of the collected sewage receives chemical or higher levels of treatment before being discharged.

HATS Stage 1 collects sewage from the urban areas of Kowloon, Tsuen Wan, Kwai Tsing, Tseung Kwan O and the north-eastern part of Hong Kong Island and transports it through a network of deep tunnels to Stonecutters Island for treatment.

The Government is implementing the second stage in two phases, HATS Stages 2A and 2B. HATS Stage 2A involves extending the deep tunnel system to take the untreated sewage from the remaining parts of Hong Kong Island to the Stonecutters

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278 The Environment