All gazetted beaches continue to meet Water Quality Objective (with photos)

     The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) released the 2019 Beach Water Quality Report today (April 1). The report indicates that all gazetted beaches in Hong Kong complied with the bacteriological Water Quality Objective (WQO) for bathing waters last year, with 21 beaches ranked as "Good" and the remaining 20 ranked as "Fair" in water quality.

     An EPD spokesman said, "The beaches of Hong Kong have maintained 100 per cent full compliance with the WQO for 10 consecutive years since 2010.

     "The sustained improvement in beach water quality is the result of years of efforts to implement pollution control and environmental improvement measures, including the enforcement of the Water Pollution Control Ordinance, implementation of the Livestock Waste Control Scheme and the Harbour Area Treatment Scheme, and extension of sewerage to the beach hinterland according to Sewerage Master Plans."

     The spokesman added, "The EPD will maintain close monitoring and reporting of the water quality of all bathing beaches to safeguard the health of beachgoers and provide scientific data for supporting the formulation of water quality improvement policy." 

     The 2019 Beach Water Quality Report can be found at the EPD's website (www.epd.gov.hk/epd/beach).