ENG-2019 — Page 299

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The Environment

Sewage Treatment and Disposal

The public sewerage system serves over 93 per cent of the population and collects about 2.8 million cubic metres of waste water daily, 93 per cent of which receives chemical or higher levels of treatment before being discharged. The government plans to spend about $22 billion over the next five years on public sewerage infrastructure projects, including sewerage provision to rural villages.

Victoria Harbour and Harbour Area Treatment Scheme

Under the Harbour Area Treatment Scheme, all sewage from both sides of Victoria Harbour is intercepted and conveyed through a network of deep tunnels to the Stonecutters Island Sewage Treatment Works for chemical treatment and disinfection before discharge. This has improved the overall water quality in the harbour significantly. The government is implementing more measures to alleviate pollution caused by the discharge of residual pollutants through the storm water systems. These measures include rectifying misconnected sewers, installing dry-weather flow interceptors in some storm water culverts and rehabilitating ageing sewers.

Sewage Disposal in Rural Areas

As at end-2019, more than 14,000 village houses were connected to public sewers. Eligible households can apply for loan and grant schemes to help them connect their buildings to the public sewers.

Sewage Charges

Under the Sewage Services Ordinance, all water users who discharge their sewage into public sewers pay a sewage charge of $2.92 per cubic metre of water supplied. Twenty-seven trades and industries whose effluent strength exceeds that of domestic sewage 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, whose construction is government-funded.

Water Quality

The water quality of Victoria Harbour has improved markedly under the Harbour Area Treatment Scheme. In 2019, the harbour's overall compliance with the statutory water quality objectives was 97 per cent.

By controlling pollution at source, river water quality has also improved. During the year, 85 per cent of the river monitoring stations were categorised as 'good' or 'excellent, while 6 per cent belonged to the 'bad' or 'very bad' categories.

Bathing Beaches

A well-established methodology is applied to monitor water quality at bathing beaches. The pollution level is measured in terms of Escherichia coli, the bacterium that can indicate the presence of sewage. All gazetted beaches meet the statutory bacteriological water quality objective for bathing.

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