Hong Kong uses enough water to fill 500,000 swimming pools yearly – will it ever run dry?
- Authorities seek to cut down on freshwater usage by 10 per cent by 2030
- Deal with mainland and cheap supply scheme leaves little incentive to conserve
Land is not the only scarce resource that the Hong Kong government is planning to “reclaim”. Authorities are also working on a proposal to reclaim sewage water, part of a master plan aimed to reduce Hong Kong’s freshwater usage – a pressing issue for a city that imports most its supply from the mainland.
“Hong Kong is facing the challenges of climate change, [which affects water resources], and the increase in water demand due to continual population and economic growth,” a Water Supplies Department spokesman tells the Post.
To counter such pressures, the government is exploring harvesting other sources of freshwater, such as from reclaiming sewage and rainwater, as well as treating shower and sink water for non-potable uses such as flushing, irrigation and fountains. The aim is to reduce the city’s freshwater consumption by 10 per cent by 2030.
But environmental organisations and experts warn that Hong Kong, which consumes nearly a billion cubic metres of freshwater each year – enough to fill 400,000 Olympic swimming pools – is moving too slowly on water conservation.
“We need to reduce our imported water by half,” says Frederick Lee, executive director of the University of Hong Kong’s Centre for Water Technology and Policy, noting that without a goal, other initiatives will “perpetuate our consumption habits” by giving a false impression of water abundance.
