The Drainage Services Department of Hong Kong Thursday awarded two contracts with a total value of about 6.3 billion HK dollars for constructing a sewage conveyance system for better water quality of Victoria Harbor.

Speaking at the contract signing ceremony, Director of Drainage Services K K Lau said these two construction contracts were among the most important components of Harbor Area Treatment Scheme ( HATS) Stage 2A.

HATS is a major sewerage infrastructure project in Hong Kong to improve the water quality of Victoria Harbor, he said.

The system will be built from North Point in the east and Aberdeen in the west to Stonecutters Island.

The commissioning of HATS Stage 1 in late 2001 provided treatment to about 75 percent of sewage discharged into Victoria Harbor, and has brought significant improvement to the water quality of the eastern and central part of the harbor.

"HATS Stage 2A will collect the remaining 25 percent of sewage generated from northern and southwestern Hong Kong Island," Lau said.

The contracts will begin on July 31 and complete in 2014. Upon commissioning, the sewage conveyance system will serve about one million people on Hong Kong Island.

(Xinhua News Agency July 31, 2009)