Page 10 - AW MayJune 19
P. 10
WORLD NEWS
Lawmakers endorse new desalination
plant in Hong Kong
ccording to a report in South China Morning Post Hong equivalent to 5 per cent of local consumption.
AKong lawmakers have unanimously endorsed a HK$7.7 At present, the city relies on Guangdong’s East River, or
billion (US$987 million) plan for the government to build a Dongjiang, and rainwater collected locally in reservoirs.
desalination plant that will meet 5 per cent of the city’s The successful bidder for the plant would be in
demand for drinking water. charge of its design, construction and operation, with the
The lawmakers also urged the government to plan government providing the capital cost and an annual
for the future expansion of the plant so as to lower the operation cost of about HK$300 million (US$38.2 million).
city’s reliance on a river in mainland China’s Guangdong Four companies from Spain, Israel and France have
province because of strategic and pollution concerns. already expressed interest.
The desalination plant, on an eight-hectare site in Hong Kong operated a desalination plant in Tuen Mun
Tseung Kwan O, is expected to produce 135,000 cubic in the 1970s. But the plant was shut down in 1982 because
metres of drinking water a day after it is completed in 2022, of high operating costs and demolished in 1991. AW
8 MAY/JUNE 2019 Asian Water
