HK Pollution Getting Worse, Says Green Group
Date: 15-Jun-07
Country: CHINA
As Hong Kong marks its tenth year under Chinese rule on July 1, worsening pollution has become a major problem.
Residents and expatriates are increasingly dismayed at the numerous smog-ridden days caused by the city's coal-fired power stations, huge numbers of cars, trucks and buses as well as thousands of factories in southern China.
Air pollution was cited as "the most disappointing" among a basket of 12 environment indicators used by Friends of the Earth to gauge the city's environmental progress over the past decade.
"Reduced visibility" days, defined as those with a visibility of less than 8 kilometres (5 miles) at a monitoring station near Hong Kong's airport, increased 207 percent from 1997 to 2006, the group said, citing data from the Hong Kong Observatory.
In 1997, hazy days occurred once every nine days, but by 2006 this frequency had risen to one in three days, the group added.
While power stations, Chinese factories and weak government policies were the main culprits -- the group also blamed more extravagant and wasteful lifestyles -- with more rubbish being generated per capita, and water and energy consumption per capita rising 15 and 18 percent respectively over the past decade.
"Hong Kong is becoming a poor role model for other cities in China, which follow its lead," said Hahn Chu, the group's environmental affairs manager. "This is an unsustainable lifestyle," he added.
Partly to meet this spike in demand, greenhouse gas emissions from Hong Kong's two power companies have jumped about 35 percent in the past decade to almost 28 million tonnes, the group said.
The head of Hong Kong's observatory recently said the city's winters could vanish within 50 years because of climate change and urbanisation.
