視察河源

就算犧牲了一點私人時間和精力，我認為出席考察是值得的！我與大家分享一些如下的花絮和觀感。

” He Yuen Inspection 14&15-4-17

Background

It is a 2-day trip to He Yuen, Starting from sun Fung reservoir on Friday, to Hui Zhou and staying at Tao Jin Golf Club for the evening, then to SZ and back in HK by 5pm on Saturday.

Altogether, we have 19-1 Hon Mem to attend. Leung kwok hung was also amongst us. Along with us we have Sec Ma Siu Cheung, Hon Chi Keung, director Lam Tin Luk and his deputy Wong chung leung.

Arriving at the border checkpoint of mainland side at 8:17am.

Brief Facts

Along the distance of 560 kilometres, there it runs with Dong Jiang. The water flow rate is about 33 billion cubic metres per year, 10.7 billion cubic metres are for human consumption and the rest is for water transports and also hydro power as well as suppressing the inward flow of sea water onto the inland.

Hong Kong is using about 10% of the total supplies. Whereas He Yuen, Huizhou and SZ are using 17, 24 and 16 percent of the total consumption.

80% of Hong Kong’s water consumption relies on Dong Jiang river. Whereas 20-25% is from the rain water that we collect and store in our reservoirs.

We are now paying almost HK$5 billion per annum for the Dong Jiang water. We care about how to keep the costs down while ensuring the quality of which is compatible to our high standard of our health and hygienic requirements.

Now HK is also exploring for alternative source of water supplies, i.e. Desalination of sea water.

Visits

Visiting Wen Li Hu新丰江水庫and Huizhou. Then we looked into the landscaping model of the entire 東江系統East River System comprised of three reservoirs of 新丰、楓樹壩and 白盆珠.

The size of Wen Li Hu is 50 times of our Man Yi reservoir. The surface area of which is 380 square kilometres which is one-third of the area of HK.   We then went up to inspect the control centre.

The centre can provide 24 hours monitoring of the in and out flow of water from each of 55 checkpoints. 

Discussion

1 how to set the water price for HK and why is it more expensive than that for other cities at the mainland?

2 how to deal with the used water and how to ensure the water quality to be safe?

Director Liu said:- The CPI index, the costs of labour, the costs of electricity for pumping the water up and the exchange of currency all have gone up which are the factors to be taken into account.

In 12 years, the average increase is about 3% per annum. Hence it commands to the present water price. Regarding the environmental protection, He Yuen has already rejected and turned down several thousands of industrial investment applications to ensure the water quality along the Dong Jiang. Some figures were mentioned, say, 46%, 28 as opposites to 33% being the max water consumption level now being reached….”5 most” :- Well managed; well protected; well built infrastructure; well ensured; most secured.

All those were meant to show the utmost good faith on the part of the Mainland to assist HK to have a stable living environment. 

PS:- There was a 1998 water supplies agreement to regulate the pricing and arrangement. Recently, the costs of supplies have gone up due to the CPI in China which was much higher than that in HK, the currency exchange rate etc. Hence it seems to cost us more to pay.

Actually it is still a good deal for us to take on. It is likely that there might be a downward adjustment in costs next year.

Now it is necessary to find a basis of calculation mutually acceptable to both sides.

Recognition and Acknowledgments

I reckon that despite our busy schedule and personal sacrifice of our own private time, it has been a worthwhile inspection trip to understand better of our water supplies system along Dong Jiang.

Thanks go to the Bureaue and our hosts across the border. Have it not because of their meticulous and well thought arrangements, we could not have smoothly and pleasantly complete the inspection trip.

Junius Ho
15-4-17 ”