Beach people, attention please! All gazetted beaches continue to meet bacteriological Water Quality Objective

The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) released the 2023 Beach Water Quality Report today (April 1). The report indicates that all 42 gazetted beaches in Hong Kong continued to fully achieve the bacteriological Water Quality Objective (WQO) for bathing waters that year, with 26 beaches ranked as "Good" and the remaining 16 ranked as "Fair". No beaches were ranked as "Poor" or "Very Poor".

An EPD spokesman said, "All the gazetted beaches have maintained full compliance with the WQO for 14 consecutive years since 2010.

"The satisfactory beach water quality over the years is attributed to the Government's continuous efforts and extensive resources dedicated to the implementation of various pollution control and environmental improvement measures, including the enforcement of the Water Pollution Control Ordinance and Livestock Waste Control Scheme, extension of the sewerage network to the beach hinterland, and the implementation of the Harbour Area Treatment Scheme.

"The EPD will continue to closely monitor the beach water quality and provide daily forecasts through the new Beach Water Quality Forecast System, launched in August 2023, which has further enhanced the beach water quality management and related services with the application of smart technologies for better safeguarding the health of beachgoers," the spokesman added.

The 2023 Beach Water Quality Report can be found at the EPD's website (www.epd.gov.hk/epd/beach).