When the best is not good enough
James Tien
11 November 2004 South China Morning Post
One glance across the harbour any morning of the week will confirm the deadly seriousness of Hong Kong's pollution problem. Despite all government efforts in the past, and the cross-boundary agreement with Guangdong to tackle the pollution sweeping across the Pearl River Delta, air quality is getting steadily worse.
The medical bill for pollution-related illnesses cost taxpayers $1.3 billion in 2000 alone. We can only guess at this year's figures. Hospital wards and doctors' surgeries are packed with patients suffering from a range of respiratory diseases, and if that were not sufficient cause for concern, we also have to face the fact that some of the costs of the smog choking our city are simply not quantifiable.
We cannot so easily assess the loss to the economy from overseas corporations who decide to set up elsewhere rather than subject their employees to these health risks.
Before this year is out, the number of hours in which the air pollution index has been above 100 has risen to more than 650 hours, nearly three times the figure in 2002. Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao Sau-tung admits that the problem will be with us for a long time. The only commitment in the Hong Kong-Guangdong accord, signed in April 2002, is to bring back emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and other airborne pollutants to 1997 levels - when air quality was still far from satisfactory. But the real worry is that even this modest target may not be attainable in the six years the agreement has left to run.
Whether we can achieve that goal depends to a great extent on how actively the Guangdong authorities can police emissions. The key to progress there is in convincing a fast-developing region that it truly is in its interests to put air-quality at the top of its list of priorities.
Here in Hong Kong, we have made reasonable progress in cutting exhaust fumes, encouraging people to use public transport and alerting drivers to the anti-social effects of sitting in stationary cars with the engine running. The introduction of LPG taxis and ultra-low diesel has greatly reduced particulates and nitrogen oxide. Yet there is still more each of us can do - a tiny gesture such as switching off unnecessary lights in the home can make a difference to the city's power supply, for example.
Given that China Light and Power and Hongkong Electric created almost 90 per cent of all dioxide and a little less than half of nitrogen oxides released into the atmosphere in 2002, anything that can reduce the city's power demand will help. The utility suppliers have a responsibility to cut their own emissions, and to use cleaner fuel sources whenever possible. The government should see that they do. Getting rid of the empty buses clogging our roads would be even more effective.
However, there is no avoiding the fact that much of Hong Kong's pollution begins in the Guangdong region. Only close and open co-operation between the two authorities can see the 2010 emission targets achieved. If officials can get together to regulate emission standards for factories, power plants and vehicles, and if each will undertake to strictly enforce the regulations, we might even look forward to achieving an earlier target for success.
We must not forget, however, that even if we do reach the present target in six years' time (and that is still a big if), our problems are not over, they are simply lessened. Dr Liao's contention that clean air objectives should be set according to the circumstances in different cities is open to challenge. The human respiratory system is the same the world over. Here, we admit about 100,000 patients with a variety of lung diseases, and more than 150,000 with heart disease every year.
Those figures are likely to get worse in the short term, unless the governments on both sides of the delta square up to their responsibilities and make bold decisions immediately.