HK's Water Supply Among Safest in WorldHong Kong enjoys one of the safest water supplies in the world, said a senior official of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Tuesday.Speaking at a Rotary Club luncheon, Lee Shing-see, secretary for works of the HKSAR, said "Hong Kong's water is as good as the best anywhere else in the world." He added that the treated water quality fully conforms to stringent international health standards, and is suitable for life-time consumption. Lee noted that in recent years there had been a wide coverage in the media linking Hong Kong's drinking water quality with the pollution of Dongjiang river. "Many people have naturally expressed concern while some have withheld their judgment until they get the full story," he said. To inform the public and set their mind at ease, he said, the SAR government set up in April this year an Advisory Committee on the Quality of Water Supplies with the aim to promote transparency and encourage public participation in the monitoring of the quality of water supplies in Hong Kong. Hong Kong gets its raw water from two sources: rainfall collected in its local catchments and stored in reservoirs and supply from the Dongjiang river in Guangdong, providing respectively 20 percent and 80 percent of the water required for the city. Lee explained that for raw water to turn into drinkable water, it had to undergo a series of treatment processes to ensure that the treated water was in full compliance with WHO standards for drinking water. "In the midst of recent outcries for clean water sources, I say with full conviction that clean drinking water has always been available to us," Lee concluded. |
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