1. Introduction

Hong Kong is one of the most populated places in the world and it lacks natural resources including water. The metropolis boasts its continuous self-upgrade in water technology and responsive public administration, which results in an effective system in water management. However, similar to most coastal cities in the world, the existing water management confronts critical challenges facing the changing global climate and economy along with cross-boundary politics.

Up till today, Hong Kong embraces independent small-government administration thus its water management system tends to be “centralized” and efficient in decision making. However, water import as a major source of drinking water only temporarily soothes water scarcity, whereas the increasing import costs and political tension may further trigger water risks. Meanwhile, local-initiated efforts exist such as water allocation in the agricultural land in rural areas, and the newly constructed desalination plant. 

This blog will overview the existing conditions of water supply and management, examine major water risks and challenges that Hong Kong will confront for water supply. The rest part will focus on one of the solutions we proposed — water recycle, aiming to alleviate the potential water risks and problems.

1.1 Water Supply System in Hong Kong

With one of the highest population density in the world, Hong Kong has confronted critical challenges in water supply. Most of local water demand has been met by importing water from mainland China. Hong Kong also utilizes reservoirs to store freshwater, and seawater for flushing toilets.

70% of drinking water in Hong Kong was exported from Dongjiang river (Fig.1), extracted from Taiyuan Pumping Station in Dongguan County all the way southwards to the Shenzhen Reservoir before crossing the boundary to the Muk Wu Pumping Station in Hong Kong. Three aqueduct supply systems convey water to major water treatment facilities in the New Territories. Western Route directs water to Ngau Tam Mei Water Treatment Works in Yuen Long; Central Route directs water to Sheung Shui Water Treatment Works near the boundary; and East Route, sends water for storage directly in the Plover Cove Reservoir. (Fig.2)

Moreover, Hong Kong established its system to collect and store rainwater locally where one-third of the land serves as water gathering grounds. The amount of rainwater collected has been unstable. In the past decade, the annual net yield differed year by year with the highest of 385 million cubic meters in 2016 and the lowest of 103 million cubic meters in 2011. This indicates local rainwater collection and storage are inadequate and unreliable to provide enough drinking water. (Fig.3)

1.2 Major Water Infrastructures

The water treatment system in Hong Kong includes freshwater, saltwater and sewage treatment facilities that usually come side by side. Freshwater is provided as drinking water and for daily use, while saltwater is provided as flushing water in toilets. The government maintains that Hong Kong enjoys one of the safest water supplies in the world, and the water in homes is safe for consumption. In fact, water in Hong Kong undergoes a series of rigorous processes in order to meet the standards for drinking water set by WHO. (Fig. 4-6)

2. Fundamental Problems of Water Management

The fundamental problems of water management in Hong Kong, as identified, are water scarcity, water safety and climate change, which accounts for issues of water security and risks.

2.1 Water Scarcity

Hong Kong is renowned for its scarcity of natural resources including lakes, rivers or underground water, thus water supply mostly relies on export from Dongjiang River. The contract  started in the 1960s between the governments of Hong Kong and Guangdong Province, successfully solving the issues of resource scarcity with economic solutions. On the other hand, however, water prices from mainland China have kept soaring, therefore water export adds to the economic burden of the government of Hong Kong. The increasing price of water export approaches equilibrium as the cost in the process of localized water purification, therefore further leverages local initiatives in finding water sources. 

However, as contracted with mainland China, the volume imported is far beyond the actual demand in Hong Kong. For example, “In 2013, the government spent 47 million dollars to purchase 82 million cubic meters of water whereas the actual consumption was 61.2 million cubic meters.”

Among the local initiatives, sea water desalination is remarkable. The very first attempt Desalting Plant was built in Tuen Mun in the 1970s but due to the high costs it was replaced by water export from Guangdong in 1980s . With the soaring price of water export, and the overestimated but unnegotiable amount of water requested by Guangdong, the government of Hong Kong re-launched water desalting projects: Tseung Kwan O Desalination Plant Project, which started in 2019 and aimed to complete in 2023 (WSD, 2020). In this way, local initiatives rely on cutting edge technology of water desalination and purification, further pushing forwards engineering solutions. However, in the next thirty years, regional collaboration and negotiation in re-allocating water resources will become a tough battle.

2.2 Water Quality

The biggest concern of Hong Kong’s water system comes in water quality. Water crisis happened in the past and is still a pressing issue today both externally and internally. Externally, Dongjiang water came from one of the major industrial and manufacturing regions of mainland China — the Pearl River Delta. Consequently, at the downstream of the industrial areas, Hong Kong always faces the challenge of drinking water quality resulting from industrial pollution. 

Internally, local water contamination occurred in 2015 as lead pollution was detected in drinking water of several major public estates in the Kai Tak Development Area. The Development Bureau established the Task Force on Investigation of Excessive Lead Content in Drinking Water, and revealed that lead came from the leaded solder joints connecting each households’ water pipes. However, no government bodies in charge nor professionals in the construction field detected the contamination of lead in the pipe materials.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong embraces a long coastal line and the government has launched the Harbour Area Treatment Scheme (HATS) to release pollution in Victoria Harbor and promote public health. (DSD, 2020)

2.3 Sea Level Rise (SLR)

The sea level of Hong Kong kept increasing at 2.3mm per year in the past 15 years. It caused a storm surge in typhoon seasons resulting in severe flooding in vulnerable locations. The government has conducted review and projection for SLR scenarios and normalized the local SLR with the global standards. However, similar to most global island cities, SLR has yet become a pressing issue on the political agenda to streamline solutions for climate adaptation.  

3. Solutions: Water Recycle as A Way towards Self-sufficiency

In recent years, due to the arising costs of water import and the increasing cross-boundary tension, along with natural disasters at vulnerable coastal areas, it is critical for local residents to re-evaluate the source of water, water containment, and water usage in Hong Kong. With both bottom-up advocacy and government initiatives, Hong Kong’s water management should learn from Singapore and enhance water self-sufficiency, which will help alleviate risks under uncertainties.

Three local solutions will help tackle water risks in Hong Kong: water recycles, water desalination, and green infrastructure. The government has kicked off policy initiatives in 2018 with strategies of water recycle aiming to launch the greywater treatment facilities in 2022. (WSD, 2018) Water desalination is also on the policy agenda with the purpose of obtaining alternative sources of fresh water. Meanwhile, Hong Kong, as a “concrete forest” — meaning densely with high-rise buildings but few vegetations — is facing increasingly extreme weather conditions, therefore it is crucial to explore green infrastructures in the urban areas by providing more vegetations and pervious land. This essay will focus on water recycle viewing it as a practical and environmentally friendly way to achieve water sufficiency.

3.1 Upgrade Water Infrastructure

To achieve water recycle and water sufficiency in a populated city like Hong Kong, a foremost goal in water management would be to enlarge the capacity. The majority of existing sewage treatment facilities are primary water treatment works that barely meet the standards of recycling water for potable purposes. Newer generation water treatment works in the New Territories, however, are of larger scale and more advanced in terms of technology. For example, Shatin Sewage Water Treatment Works has applied secondary water treatment using micro-organisms to assimilate pollutes in the sewage water. (DSD, 2020) Launched in 2005, Ngong Ping Water Treatment Work, the first tertiary water treatment works in Hong Kong is used to explore local opportunities of effluent reuse. (DSD, 2020)

The enhancement of waterworks in Hong Kong will roughly come in twofold: to upgrade infrastructure in old city centers and to launch water recycle in newly developed areas. Since the government scheme in the early 2000s to release pollution in Victoria Harbor, Stonecutter Island Water Treatment Work has been operated to reclaim water collected from Kowloon urban districts. Therefore, the scheme will be implemented in phases with an experimental phase followed by a second phase to popularize water recycle in the majority of the territory.

• First, the ongoing Clean Harbor Scheme would facilitate a further upgrade of the primary water treatments in the old urban clusters including Kowloon and West Kowloon (Fig. 9, orange areas)
• Second, to leverage water recycle in the New Territories and Lantau Island by establishing a network of new-generation sewage treatment facilities. The blue areas in Figure 9 blue areas identify Ngong Ping Water Treatment and nearby facilities in Tung Chung new town area, and potential new water treatment facilities in the New Development Areas near Tuen Mun and Yuen Long.
• A later phase would involve the upgrade of existing water treatment works in East Kowloon and East Hong Kong Island areas, as illustrated by the green areas in Figure 9.
• Following the urban districts, the newer Shatin Sewage Treatment Works (Fig.9 purple areas) in Shatin new town would be applied for water recycling purposes.

Figure 10 illustrates the procedures of water recycling. Under the current condition, treated water will be discharged into Victoria Harbor. With the advancement of water treatment technology, it is foreseeable to reach the drinking water standards and disseminate treated water as potable water, flushing water, industrial and architecture supportive uses, along with agriculture and fishery uses.

3.2 Integrated Management and Multi-Level Collaboration

Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) aims to involve multiple levels of governance and cross-disciplinary collaboration in water management and optimize “economic, social-welfare” and ecological sustainability (GWP, 2000). The rationale of integrated water management according to Moss and Newig (2010) is to resolve several “mismatching spatial relations” including “biophysical processes, administrative structures, and procedures or individual preference” (p.2).

A suggested framework of collaboration will be formulated adopting an IMRW approach. (Fig.11) Echoing Mitchell (2005)’s theory, the cooperation of government departments is effective governance resolving the drinking water crisis, since vertical fragmentation joins efforts of different agencies in the government across disciplines. In this way, each branch will ensure an in-depth investigation in each specialty. Collaboration in horizontal fragmentation, however, as demonstrated by continuous cross-boundary cooperation between Hong Kong and Guangdong governments, along with emerging local initiatives and public-and-private-partnerships is an effective way to alleviate unbalanced resource distribution across regions.

3.3 Funding and Pricing

Under the existing condition, Hong Kong’s water management is a centralized process as executed by the Water Services Department, therefore, the funding for water management most comes from appropriation. Our suggestion will change the status-quo by water pricing strategies charging freshwater, seawater reclaimed potable water and treated greywater for both domestic and non-domestic usages. Domestic freshwater and flushing water including seawater and treated greywater will keep low-priced first-tier tariffs, which encourages water reuse in daily living. However, reclaimed water for non-domestic use will be charged as a source of revenue for management bodies. In addition, the government can run a quasi-public water foundation with a small portion of funding. This diversified cash flow is particularly important facing water risks and uncertainties. Illustrative pricing is shown in the table below. (Fig. 12-13)

3.4 Implementation Timeline

The implementation of water recycle will be in threefold: in the short-run, medium-run and long-run. (Fig.14)

• In the short-run, as a continuity of the 2018 policy initiative, pipes will be established in the New Development Areas in the New Territories. Reclaimed water will be served for non-potable uses such as flushing water.
• In the medium-run, recycled water will serve as domestic freshwater and non-domestic uses such as industrial and architecture supportive uses. Policy and legislation will further support and regulate recycled water usage. The first phase of update of the old town sewage treatment works and establishment of new town sewage network will be completed.
• In the long-run, with the setup of major infrastructure framework of water recycle, both recycled water and desalinated water will serve as major sources of water supply. The second phase of update of the old town sewage treatment works and establishment of new town sewage network will be completed.

3.5 Overview of an Illustrative Water Portfolio

As suggested by Hanak and Lund (2015), water management should alleviate risks using methods similar to financial portfolios management by integrating various channels of water supply and demand. A similar practice has been observed in Hong Kong’s water management efforts. By building up a wide range of sources for water supply, it would be possible to formulate a water portfolio in the long-term. It is estimated that recycled water and desalinated water will serve as major sources of water supply while water import would continue to decrease and be replaced by local supply eventually if the cost of supply and demands meets equilibrium. (Fig.15)

4. Limitations

The high costs of water recycle and water desalination might harness the bottleneck for the medium-to-long-run strategies when local solutions are employed for a large number of residents. Similar to the scarcity of water, Hong Kong is facing land scarcity which confines development opportunities of large-scale public infrastructure. Both land price and cost of the technology will add up to the overall costs of water self-sufficiency in Hong Kong. The popularization of the local water supply will further rely on the cost and benefit analysis of reducing and replacing water import.

Local initiatives on water management might be uncommon as compared to other environmental groups and they scatter around the territory. Collaboration with local initiatives requires efforts and the process might be tedious and fruitless.

The long-term strategies will face many uncertainties. For example, the impact of climate change is unpredictable and debatable. Potential disasters on coastal facilities need further study.

Reference

Hanak, E., Lund, J., 2015. Portfolio approaches to reduce costs and improve reliability of water supplies. Sustainable Water: Challenges and Solutions from California. Berkeley: Univ of California Press.
GWP, 2000, “Integrated water resources management”, TAC Background Paper 4, Global Water Partnership Secretariat, Hantverkargatan 5, SE-112 21 Stockholm.
Mitchell, B., 2005. Integrated water resource management, institutional arrangements, and land-use planning. Environment and planning A, 37(8): 1335-1352.
Moss T. and Newig J., 2010. Multilevel Water Governance and Problems of Scale: Setting the Stage for a Broader Debate. Environmental Management (2010) 46:1–6.

Water resources:

• https://www.wsd.gov.hk/en/core-businesses/water-resources/local-yield/index.html
• https://www.wsd.gov.hk/en/core-businesses/water-resources/dongjiang-water/index.html

Lead pollution in drinking water:

Sea level rise

• http://bec.org.hk/ccfb/en-us/hong_kong_context_affected.html
• https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-23773-8_9
• https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/2164227/super-typhoon-mangkhut-flood-threat-hong-kong-climate-change-will

Water recycle:

• https://www.dsd.gov.hk/TC/Files/publications_publicity/publicity_materials/leaflets_booklets_factsheets/Sha%20Tin%20STW.pdf
• https://www.dsd.gov.hk/EN/Sewerage/Sewage_Treatment_Facilities/Type_of_Sewage_Treatment_Facilities/index.html
• https://www.dsd.gov.hk/EN/Sewerage/Sewerage_Strategy/index.html
• https://www.dsd.gov.hk/EN/Files/DOC/SISTW.pdf
• https://www.dsd.gov.hk/EN/HTML/434.html
• https://www.dsd.gov.hk/EN/Files/Technical_Manual/technical_papers/CM0601.pdf