A new seawater desalination plant will be built at Tseung Kwan O to meet the ever-increasing water needs of the SAR, Donald Tsang said.
To be built on a 10-hectare site, it will supply 5 percent of the territory’s water needs when construction is completed within the next decade.
“We are conducting a detailed study and doing field surveys to assess the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of building a medium-sized desalination plant,” Tsang said.
A thousand households will take part in surveys of water-use habits, a government source said.
It will take two years for the study and seven years to build the plant.
Meanwhile, the government is negotiating a new agreement with the Guangdong authorities for the supply of Dongjiang water for the next three years, he added.
The source said the cost of importing drinking water from Dongjiang is HK$9 per cubic meter and that of desalination is HK$12. The cost is bound to drop as desalination technology matures.
But Greenpeace said the new plan does not tackle the root cause of the water shortage.
“There is intense demand for water in the Pearl River Delta between industrial users and households in Guangdong and Hong Kong. It is necessary to stabilize the water supply by exploring new avenues,” campaign manager Gloria Chang Wan-ki said.
Meanwhile, Tsang is allotting HK$330 million in subsidies for bus and taxi operators to make their vehicles greener.
This includes HK$180 million for franchised bus companies to buy 36 electric vehicles for trial runs, and HK$150 million will be given as a one-off subsidy for owners of LPG taxis and light buses to replace catalytic converters.
The target routes for electric buses will be Causeway Bay, Mong Kok, Nathan Road and Central.
Kowloon Motor Bus spokeswoman Susanne Sin said: “Our first super capacitor bus was tested last June. It was a left-hand drive vehicle from the mainland so new electric buses will be made suitable for Hong Kong drivers.”
But To Sum-tong, director of the taxi driver branch of the Motor Transport Workers General Union, said: “When the temperature falls under 12 degrees, these converters in the taxis may not function.”
