A new way to bring drinking water
發佈日期: 2025-04-23 19:33
TVB News
As access to drinking water becomes ever scarcer owing to the effects of climate change, the government has begun seeking and developing new sources of drinking water in recent years.
One such site is the Tseung Kwan O Desalination Plant, which began operations at the end of 2023. The plant utilises technology to transform saline water into safe drinking water, which is considered more effective than distillation.
Located beneath the body of water separating Joss House Bay and Tung Lung Chau is a tunnel that bears immense responsibility for the livelihoods of local residents. Entering the hexagonal intake of the mega structure, seawater will then pass through a 330-metre-long tunnel before arriving at the Tseung Kwan O Desalination Plant.
After undergoing a filtration and purification process, the water will then go through a reverse osmosis procedure in these white-coloured pipes. The desalination plant is fitted with over 2,300 pipes and operates on a 24-hour basis.
The plant is capable of producing 135 million litres of drinking water every day -- that's around the same volume of water of 54 standard swimming pools. It is a significant upgrade from the now-defunct Lok On Pai Desalting Plant in Tuen Mun, which only produced 25 million litres of drinking water each day.
This mechanical engineer from the Water Supplies Department stressed the efficiency of the Tseung Kwan O plant comes from the fact that the facility applies a desalination method instead of the slower distillation method used in its Tuen Mun counterpart. The processed water will then be supplied to areas including Sai Kung and Kowloon East, while more concentrated saline water will be released back into the ocean.
Meanwhile, authorities running the desalination plant noted it could increase the production levels of drinking water to 270 million litres per day as part of the plant's second phase of construction, which would make up 10 percent of all drinking water in Hong Kong.
