Water source in HK, Macao safe

Water flowing through Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions is safe to drink despite the increasing number of environmental incidents on the Pearl River in recent years, the river's monitor agency said.

There has been a string of environmental scandals across the country in recent years in the wake of the construction boom of chemical plants alongside rivers.

"So far, pollutants in the Pearl River can be diluted and absorbed within certain river sections, which pose no substantial impact on the whole river," Liu Zhisen, an official on water resources protection from the Pearl River Water Resources Commission, told China Daily.