Hong Kong’s Water Quality Governance: A Historical PerspectivePolicy Instruments and Priorities

Zhu Jin; Li Wanxin

doi:10.64423/arpa.v34i2.110

Authors

Zhu Jin School of Public Policy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China
Li Wanxin School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, China https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4501-701X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.64423/arpa.v34i2.110

Keywords:

Hong Kong, water quality governance, Legislative Council proceedings

Abstract

Based on 112 water quality-related proceedings of the Hong Kong Legislative Council from 2014 to 2025, this study employed an analytical framework of policy tools, policy issues, and time evolution to investigate Hong Kong’s water-quality governance agenda. The findings indicate that command and control were mentioned most frequently, followed by public information, participation and collaboration, public investment, and economic incentives. Overall, the policy-tool discussion evolved from a regulation- dominated configuration toward a more diverse combination. In terms of policy issues, water pollution, water infrastructure, and sewage treatment received the most attention. The coded instrument-issue links suggest an association between problem characteristics and instrument configurations: topics with clear responsibility boundaries and compliance requirements were more often associated with command and control; topics involving engineering construction and technological improvement were more related to public investment and economic incentives; while topics involving behavioral change or multi- actor cooperation were more often associated with public information and participation and collaboration. The research shows that Hong Kong’s water quality governance agenda included administrative regulation, economic tools, and discussion of stakeholder participation, with attention gradually expanding from pollution control to infrastructure improvement, ecological protection, and governance resilience.

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