26 3 Government Panel on Adaptation and Resilience Clean water supplies and water saving WSD is responsible for providing Hong Kong with water at 99% reliability. One of WSD’s responsibilities is to encourage water saving because water is a scarce resource, and water and energy usages are intimately tied because energy is needed to pump water. Saving water means saving energy too. Figure 3.7 shows Hong Kong imports nearly 60% of its total water supply from the mainland. Climate change will impact not only Hong Kong’s local yield but also the yield in Pearl River Delta Basin. WSD’s Total Water Management Strategy addresses both demand and supply issues.5 WSD’s demand management measures promote water conservation and water loss management. The demand-side KPIs are to: (current demand is 1,055 mcm per year) 2030 2040 10% Per capita demand Contain the overall demand to <1,000mcm WATER DEMAND FIGURE 37 Overview of water demand and supply in Hong Kong (2021) DEMAND 1,376mcm 382 mcm 623 mcm 371 mcm Flushing water Fresh water domestic Fresh water non-domestic Fresh water 72% Flushing water 28% Seawater Local yield Dongjiang water SUPPLY 1,376mcm 23% 321 mcm 59% 811 mcm 18% 244 mcm Achieving these KPIs would also reduce energy consumption by 60 gigawatt-hour a year. Other than public education to promote saving water, other means include implementing effective network management with establishment of the Water Intelligent Network to reduce water loss, charging water loss on private mains, launching smart metering system, and mandating the Water Efficiency Labelling Scheme for water using apparatus. On the supply side, the key is diversifying water sources to ensure greater water security because of rising water demand in the GBA and climate change impact that could lead to drought, such as the drought in 2021 in Guangdong. WSD’s InterReservoirs Transfer Scheme can provide extra local yield of about 3 mcm per year, and there are other measures that could expand water gathering grounds to increase local yield too. There are possibilities to extend the non-potable uses of lower grade water, including seawater and recycled water. The benefit of recycled water is that it is not affected by climate change, and it could be applied in new development and large redevelopment areas. WSD and DSD are cooperating for higher “WSD has embedded climate adaptation into our planning and strategy of securing water sustainability. We look forward to collaborating with every concerned stakeholder and the public to build a sustainable future for our next generations.” Kelvin Lo Director, WSD Kelvin Lo, WSD
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDk5Njg=