By Dr David von Eiff
17 December 2019

The current plans by the Water Supplies Department are not aggressive or ambitious enough to lower Hong Kong’s reliance on natural flows, nor do they appear to increase the long-term resilience of the system in the face of climate change. In this second report of “Modernising Hong Kong’s Water Policy Management”, we propose policy recommendations on sustainably diversifying our local water supply.

Key Policy Recommendations

• Set an ambitious vision for the deployment of reclaimed water in non-potable uses
• Reconsider the necessary conditions for deploying desalination as a backup option of freshwater supply
• Develop a closer partnership between WSD and DSD
• Increase granularity and transparency of data to improve water supply planning

Our findings were presented at a launch event on 17 December 2019 by Senior Advisor Ms Natalie Chan, associate researcher Dr David von Eiff and fellow Dr Frederick Lee.

From left to right: Evan Auyang, Chairman of Civic Exchange, Dr David von Eiff, Associate Researcher of Civic Exchange, Natalie Chan, Senior Advisor of Civic Exchange, and Dr Frederick Lee, Fellow of Civic Exchange.

Dr David von Eiff shares the key findings of the report.

 

Media Coverage:

• SCMP: Think tank urges Hong Kong government to reconsider water import deal with mainland China (Dec 17)
• RTHK: HK urged to get more ambitious over water supply (Dec 17)
  • Follow-up radio interview on RTHK3: Government urged to boost HK’s own water supply (Dec 18)
    
• HK01: 智庫研究：東江水價格高致水務署長年虧損　倡發展再造水 (Dec 17)
• 蘋果日報: 東江水價年加6.8% 思匯政策倡減低依賴 促水務署取消「統包總領」 (Dec 17)
• 星島日報: 智庫研究倡發展再造水 減少依賴東江水 (Dec 17)
• 頭條日報: 智庫研究倡發展再造水 減少依賴東江水 (Dec 17)
• 巴士的報: 智庫研究倡發展再造水 減少依賴東江水 (Dec 17)
• Hong Kong Free Press: Hong Kong is too reliant on costly Mainland water, says think tank – so what’s the alternative? (Dec 28)