I suspect many would jump at the chance. It does look like a PR failure for the company. Not lucky winners from trainspotters monthly. Offering reduced wages for this event that is so public seems a little short sighted. It should of been celebrated not made cheap given all the unnecessary waste. A mix of journalists, pro-authoritarian and pro-liberal politicians and kids with smiling faces. It should be just a very expensive train track but the pro-authoritarian have made it about how to set a precedent to bypass the basic law. Very sad.
Singapore gets water from Malaysia, a place they have a very uneasy relationship with and want to be self-sufficient.
Hong Kong gets water from China, a place that owns them (even if we have an uneasy relationship). It's hard to say we should not trust China to send us water - either practically or politically. Reverse osmosis from seawater is horrendously expensive and also has extremely high energy requirements - both expensive and climate negative.
It's not clear to me we are actually doing anything wrong here or that comparisons with Singapore are valid.
The actual water contract i think is between singapore and johor. And its actually a very tricky one commercially. Involves two way flows of water. Beneficiary to both singapore and johor (actually, especially johor) enormously. So commercially no reason for johor to want to terminate the agreement.
Nevertheless, the 'security' issued comply Singapore to develop the other sources of water supply what are very energy consuming.. 1. creation of the large marina barrage reservoir; 2. Newwater (treatment of used water that are sent back to refill the reservoir); 3. desalination plant.
Cost of these water are extremely high so happily the government of singapore use this excuse to charge singaporean the high cost of treated water, and in the meanwhile continue to use the low cost johor water to provide to the country.
So very much, the water issue for singapore is different. Its not a commercial practical necessity as what was mentioned earlier.. In fact, from practical aspect Pahang (a state that is above johor) can also look at supplying water to singapore and i would believe their sultan is actually keen in the project from commercial reason.
Then the issue becomes entirely security.
For hk, the issue is entirely for commercial/practical reason. I would probably not call this 'water security' like what threaten singapore, but more of a 'water availability' in consideration of the huge amount of water usage for development. Then comparison seems not that fair.
For years there have been many concrete proposals for desalination plants in Hong Kong now from lawmakers in Hong Kong, but this has always been shot down by the usual Beijing collaborators. Hong Kong pays way way more money for its water from China then Singapore does from Malaysia, cannot pay on the basis of the level of water used but needs to buy it on basis of a total volume way above what is actually needed. On top of that Hong Kong still has to treat the water when it comes in.
On top of that if there is any conflict with China the same beijing collaborators give the argument that one should not fight with China because without their water HK would be nowhere. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.
Hong Kong had a desalination plant years ago (Gold Coast housing estate is built on the site). it operated from 1975-1981. It was cheaper to import the water from China, so the plant was decommissioned and then demolished years later
https://www.wsd.gov.hk/en/core-busin...ant/index.html
they a;lso have a desalination unit at the NT turd burner gasification plant (because they forgto to plan with WSD for a mains supply)