ENG-2014 — Page 303

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The Environment

Sewage Charges

All water users who discharge their sewage into public sewers have to pay a basic sewage charge in accordance with the Sewage Services Ordinance. Also, 27 trades and industries whose effluent strength exceeds that of domestic sewage have to pay a trade effluent surcharge reflecting the additional cost of treating their stronger effluent. These charges are used to recover the operation and maintenance costs of sewage collection, treatment, and disposal facilities, while the government provides funds for construction.

In support of the polluter-pays principle, since 2007 the government has initiated a gradual increase in the sewage charges for handling domestic waste water over a 10-year time frame. The average bill for domestic accounts will rise from the 2007 level of $11 per month to $27 per month over a period of 10 years.

Water Quality

Water pollution, if left unchecked, tends to increase 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 HATS Stage 1 went into operation in 2001, there has been a marked improvement. The dissolved oxygen level in the harbour water has increased, while pollutants like ammonia and faecal bacteria have decreased. 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 monitored in the 'good' and 'excellent' categories increased from 34 per cent in 1986 to 85 per cent in 2014, and the percentage in the 'bad' and 'very bad' categories fell from 45 per cent in 1986 to 6 per cent, with no river falling into the 'very bad' category in 2014.

Marine water quality objectives under the Water Pollution Control Ordinance apply to the 10 water control zones. The government is considering preliminary proposals to revise these objectives.

Bathing Beaches

To protect the health of swimmers at bathing beaches, the government adopts strict standards for water quality control which indicate the pollution level measured in terms of Escherichia coli (the bacterium that can indicate the presence of sewage). Beaches in the 'good' and 'fair' categories in the following table meet the government's water quality objective for bathing, and all did in 2014.

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