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Is Hong Kong’s HK$13.4 billion water deal with mainland China unfair?

Legislators call current agreement excessive and suggest move from lump-sum payment to consumption-based model

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Lawmakers on a Legco delegation to the mainland take a boat trip to observe the Xinfengjiang Reservoir in Heyuan, Guangdong. Photo: ISD

Hong Kong should change its water import deal with the mainland, replacing the current fixed lump-sum arrangement with one based on actual consumption, according to local lawmakers who think the city is splashing out too much under the present agreement.

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Democratic Party lawmaker Helena Wong Pik-wan said on Monday that the HK$4 billion or so that the Hong Kong government is paying Guangdong every year for a guaranteed volume of water is both expensive and excessive.

“This definitely has to be changed. It’s an unfair agreement,” Wong said on an RTHK programme.

Guangdong supplies 80 per cent of Hong Kong’s water. Photo: Dickson Lee
Guangdong supplies 80 per cent of Hong Kong’s water. Photo: Dickson Lee

Under a three-year deal with Guangdong – which supplies 80 per cent of Hong Kong’s water – the import price has climbed 20 per cent from previous years to HK$13.4 billion in total. The agreement will expire later this year.

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The sum is for a guaranteed Dongjiang water supply of 820 million cubic metres a year.

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