Victoria Harbour's water quality problems stem from a past when Hong Kong's population and sewage flows were much lighter. For years sewage was dumped untreated into the harbour and flushed away by tidal currents. This approach more or less worked until the early 1980s, when the growth in Hong Kong's population and economic activity created sewage loads that were well beyond the harbour's capacity to absorb. In 1989 the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) unveiled a strategic sewage scheme to address the problem. In 2001 this scheme became known as HATS.
Stage 1 of HATS involves collecting sewage from Kowloon and northeast Hong Kong Island and transporting it to a sewage treatment works on Stonecutters Island for chemically enhanced primary treatment. It was commissioned in late 2001, with immediate positive results. Substantial decreases have been recorded in ammonia, E.coli, total inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus. Dissolved oxygen, which is essential to marine life, has increased ten per cent overall. Compliance with the harbour's Water Quality Objectives was 90 per cent in 2006 as against 50 per cent in 2001. However, some problems remain or have worsened.
Stage 1 of HATS involves collecting sewage from Kowloon and northeast Hong Kong Island and transporting it to a sewage treatment works on Stonecutters Island for chemically enhanced primary treatment. It was commissioned in late 2001, with immediate positive results. Substantial decreases have been recorded in ammonia, E.coli, total inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus. Dissolved oxygen, which is essential to marine life, has increased ten per cent overall. Compliance with the harbour's Water Quality Objectives was 90 per cent in 2006 as against 50 per cent in 2001. However, some problems remain or have worsened.
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