Marine pollution in hk
A further challenge to Hong Kong's marine waters came in the form of mud.
This report is designed to offer a detailed picture of the monitoring programme and how it has developed over time, as well as outlining some of the improvements in Hong Kong's marine water profile that have been achieved over the last twenty years.
Bacteria, excessive nutrients, toxic chemicals and other pollutants can make swimmers sick, contaminate or kill marine life, and give off malodor.
With many of the local industries relocated to the Mainland in the last two decades, the key pollutants come from human sources and livestock farms in the rural area.
The water quality of most parts of Hong Kong's waters is relatively stable and generally slow to respond to specific sources of pollution. By contrast, Deep Bay to the west has strong estuarine characteristics, meaning the water there is mixed with river flow, is low in salinity, typically shallow averaging 4 to 10 metres in depthsilty and turbid.
Twenty years ago, thousands of factories-particularly in the Kwun Tong and Tsuen Wan areas-discharged their untreated industrial waste directly into sewers that flowed into the sea.
Hong kong plastic use
The monitoring has recorded that water quality of rivers across Hong Kong has improved substantially, after a series of remedial measures introduced in the late s and s. Young Hong Kongers may be surprised to discover that, in the early s, most parts of the New Territories and some urban areas were home to thousands of pig farms and chicken farms. Most of the large volumes of effluent deriving from these farms was disposed of directly into Hong Kong's rivers, which washed the pollution out to sea. It also checks oil terminals to ensure that their anti-oil pollution equipment is in good order. To house the rising population the Government began building new towns in the s, and while these proved to be masterful solutions to social and demographic issues, they did not always bring equal benefits to the surrounding environment. Comprehensive marine water information available to all The EPD has made special efforts to make sure the information it gathers from its marine monitoring programme is widely available to everyone. Other initiatives of the time included the Dumping at Sea Ordinance, which began to control the dumping of dredged mud in territorial waters. In response, the Government created an important blueprint for improving Hong Kong's marine waters under the new Water Pollution Control Ordinance.The Government is actively implementing infrastructure projects. Now, all sewage around Victoria Harbour receives chemically-enhanced primary treatment and disinfection.
Both sides are continuing to take forward cooperation and exchange on water quality management of the estuary according to the recommendations of the study.