Monster floods push Hong Kong to confront a changing climate
HONG Kong’s government recently articulated for the first time a plan for how it will deal with extreme weather in the future, a need that crystalised with a series of catastrophic rainstorms in September.
Chief Executive John Lee addressed the city’s climate resilience in a policy speech last month, marking a break from his predecessor who focused only on reducing carbon emissions. His measures include an HK$8 billion (S$1.34 billion) plan to improve drainage, and the use of big data and AI to improve hazard forecasts and alerts.
The September typhoon brought the heaviest rains in Hong Kong since records began in 1884, flooding malls and subways stations, tearing up roads and paralysing the city. The downpour also caused landslides, with access to one public housing complex blocked by large boulders while cliff-side wealthy residents had to evacuate from their mansions.
Hong Kong gets hit with typhoons and heavy rains every summer, and has well-designed infrastructure and a widely understood warning system. But climate change is posing a severe test to Hong Kong’s defences — and sense of security — as extreme weather becomes more frequent.
Flooding and typhoons could cost the financial hub billions of dollars if not managed well. One-third of banks’ property loans in Hong Kong, about HK$1 trillion, were at risk from typhoons and floods, according to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s climate stress test in 2021.
“We are now okay in handling the old climate, but climate change is coming really fast and coming strong,” said Tom Ng, campaigner at Greenpeace Hong Kong.
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In September, the government came under fire for not warning residents in time, raising the alert level only after the storm rampaged the city overnight.
A HK$150 million cell phone emergency alert system wasn’t even used. Officials said that the government itself was caught off guard as the storm was a “once-in-500-years” event.
Bruce Chong, director of climate and sustainability at engineering services firm Arup Group Ltd., said that the current design standard for critical infrastructure in Hong Kong can withstand a once-in-200-years event but is unable to cope with a once-in-500-years disaster like what happened in September.
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“This is a common issue and pain point for developed cities,” Chong said in an emailed response.
Experts say there are other specific aspects that the government should also focus on in its resilience planning.
Ji Chen, a civil engineering professor at the University of Hong Kong, suggests the government pour resources into research to improve the accuracy of rain forecast and analyze various districts’ vulnerabilities to disasters so it can better alert residents to mitigate losses.
Greenpeace said the city needs to upgrade its hardware, like a stronger drainage system and higher design standards for port works such as seawalls and breakwaters.
In an emailed response, the government said it “attaches great importance to addressing the impacts brought by climate change” and said the chief executive chairs a steering committee responsible for formulating overall adaptation and resilience capabilities.
The city is also carrying out projects to improve flood prevention and drainage, and has completed a coastal hazard study which identified residential areas with higher risk from from waves or storm surges during typhoons.
Chao Ren, associate professor at HKU’s Faculty of Architecture, said the government should have a better plan to deal with multiple disasters that might hit in a short space of time.
“I don’t think the government on that part is ready,” she said.
A less prioritised issue in Hong Kong brought on by climate change is rising heat. The city just experienced the hottest summer on record, and with many low-income residents living in tiny subdivided homes or rooftop huts, heat inflicts much more than mild physical discomfort. Ren said Hong Kong doesn’t have sufficient measures in place to protect such residents from heat.
Other Asian governments are also stepping up their defences in the face of increasingly extreme weather. Tokyo has a 15-trillion-yen (S$133.8 billion) resilience project to fortify its infrastructure against natural and man-made disasters. Roughly 6.6 trillion yen of the funding will go toward improving the subway area’s flood infrastructure.
And in contrast to Hong Kong, Singapore, another small and vulnerable city, has in place ambitious plans.
It will spend S$100 billion over the next 100 years to protect against rising sea levels and has set aside S$5 billion for a coastal and flood protection fund. Its prime minister has called the threat of climate change “existential.” The city state also introduced an advisory system for residents to check heat stress levels from nearby sensors on a website or an app.
The scale of Singapore’s preparation stands in contrast to Hong Kong’s nascent resilience planning, and experts hope that the recent storm will acts as a wake-up call to Hong Kong.
“We may be fine with a once-in-100-years flood,” said Chen. “But how about 500 years, or even 1000 years? Even if it has happened this year, it will have the same probability to happen next year. Weather has no memory.” BLOOMBERG
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