Failure of Sewage Treatment Plant at Ma Po Ping Prison / Tong Fuk Beach closed (14/5/1998)

14 May 1998

 

Failure of Sewage Treatment Plant at Ma Po Ping Prison

The Drainage Services Department will close the sewage treatment plant at Ma Po Ping Prison, Lantau, at 10 pm today (Thursday) to enable works to be carried out to rectify the bearing failure.

A spokesman for the department said the failure occurred at about 10.30 am today and the Environmental Protection Department was informed at about 3 pm after emergency works failed to restore normal operation.

"Repair works are expected to take about one week. In the meantime, sewage will be transported by tanker trucks to other treatment facilities on Lantau for treatment before final disposal," the spokesman said.

"Less than 180 cubic meters of sewage is discharged to the sea at Tong Fuk Beach after primary treatment with increased disinfection dosage between 10.30 am and 10 pm today," he said.

"The increased dosage of sodium hypochlorite will help maintain the level of disinfection specified in the plant's licence requirement," he said.

"The effect on water pollution is likely to be minimal," the spokesman added.

End/Thursday, May 14, 1998


Tong Fuk Beach closed

The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) today (Thursday) advised the Regional Services Department (RSD) to close temporarily the Tong Fuk Beach in Lantau following a report of partial failure of a sewage treatment plant at Ma Po Ping Prison.

The report was received from Drainage Services Department at about 3 pm.

Initial inquiry revealed that part of the sewage plant had broken down due to bearing failure. However, the rest of the plant were still operating normally. Chlorine dosage has been increased to maintain effective disinfection of the discharge.

Since the impact on water quality of the beach could not be ascertained until water sample result is available, RSD was advised to close the beach as a precautionary approach to minimise any health hazard to swimmers.

End/Thursday, May 14, 1998

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