Hongkongers may well have to start paying more for their water bills soon. The Water Supplies Department is currently reviewing water charges, which will hopefully conclude within the next two months at the earliest. This review comes after the Hong Kong government signed a new three-year agreement with Guangdong’s authorities in December 2023, detailing a raise in prices for Dongjiang water by roughly 2.4 percent each year until 2026.
Dongjiang water supplies over 70 percent of Hong Kong’s freshwater, but according to the Water Supplies Department, this is not the only reason they’re looking at a possible price hike – the department is also taking into account factors such as operational costs and Hong Kong’s economy. The director of Water Supplies, Tony Yau Kwok-ting, also told reporters that this price increase from our supplier is considered normal and has already happened before, but Hong Kong’s water tariff hasn’t changed for the public for almost 30 years since 1995.
The department is working on decreasing Hong Kong’s reliance on Dongjiang water through seawater desalination and recycling. We already have the Tseung Kwan O desalination plant treating and supplying drinking water to Sai Kung, parts of east Kowloon, and Hong Kong Island since the end of last year. However, the cost of desalinating our own seawater runs at $13 per cubic metre, which is 18 percent more costly than the $11 charged by Dongjiang – though Yau does say that the cost of seawater desalination will go down as the technology advances.
It remains to be seen what our water bills might look like in the near future, but best to save those pennies for now.
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