Policies and Principles in Hong Kong's Water Pollution Control Legislation

Hong Kong's water quality management policy aims to control direct environmental discharges and to limit the toxicity of sewer discharges so that ultimate effluents are not harmful. It bases pollution control standards on water quality objectives that will protect conservation goals. The main control mechanism is a licensing system. This allows the authority wide scope to specify treatment technology, but in practice the authority only sets pollution load limits, in line with the government's non-interventionist stance. Published standards for a wide range of receiving waters and effluent flow rates do not refer to the industrial or treatment processes from which the effluents arise. The standards aim to maximize the use of the foul sewerage system, to require pretreatment for toxins, and to allow economically efficient centralized treatment where appropriate. The law is effective to meet the policy goals, but a very slow pace of implementation has limited its practical value.