Air Pollution Problem, Cited As Problem For Tourism In Hong Kong, Cannot Be Completely Blamed On China, According To Some...

Hong Kong people love to blame the air pollution here on China. China does contribute significantly, but the street level air pollution that we have to endure is not caused by Chinese factories. Its by our own output. People here love to wash their hands of the problem and China is an easy target since things there are so bad. But....

The government has said most of the pollution rolls in from mainland China's heavily industrialised Pearl River delta region, which has seen huge economic growth in the past decade.

However, Friends of the Earth Hong Kong and local campaigners Clear the Air say local power producers are also major culprits.

"The pollution is not 'coming down from China'," said Annelise Connell, chairperson of Clear The Air, in a statement.

"The sulphur dioxide levels are really bad ... which shows that our own power plants are involved in regional pollution," she added.

Lau said Hong Kong's two major power plants, which use a high level of polluting coal, and the city's bus companies, which rely on vehicles with poor emissions controls, were the major sources of pollution.

By claiming that the problem comes from outside, people here are absolved from responsibility.

My young daughter, only a little over 2 and a half years old, is suffering from coughs and is constantly getting sick. The doctor says that it could be allergies and it could be caused by the pollution, we just don't know.

The government's weak claim that the air pollution is caused exclusively by outside forces, is callously washing its hands of its social responsibility to the people in favor of the greedy tycoons that run the bus companies and two monopoly power companies. Government here represents just the powerful interests and is not interested in the welfare and health of the people on this rock.