Water is the invisible foundation of city life—but in Hong Kong, it’s too often taken for granted. This session opens with a sharp reality check on the city’s water security, including rising demand, high wastage rates, and growing climate risks. What will it take to protect this vital resource for future generations? A cross-sector panel of leaders from government, academia, technology and business sectors explores bold strategies to drive efficiency, tackle systemic problems, and build a resilient water future for Asia’s most vertical city.
Presenter
Frederick Lee
Panel moderator
Christine Loh
Panel speakers
Bryan Ha
Frederick Lee
Yan-lok, Roger Wong
Moderator
Christine Loh
Chief Development Strategist, Institute for the Environment
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Chief Development Strategist, Institute for the Environment
Christine Loh is Chief Development Strategist at Institute for the Environment at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Scholar in Residence at Asia Society Hong Kong (2023-25). She serves on the boards of New Forests Pty Limited, and Towngas Smart Energy. She is a published author of many academic and popular works.
My Sustainability Goals for 2025:
To develop transdisciplinary studies with real world context.
Speaking at:
Day 1
Advances in Climate Science: Fine-Scale Projection for Managing Extreme Risks in Asia’s CitiesDay 2
Rethinking Water: Securing Hong Kong’s Liquid Lifeline Beyond the Burn: Rethinking Sports in Hong Kong’s Boiling Era Financing for Nature: Investing in Biodiversity Across the Indo-Pacific Corridor The Great Debate: This House Believes AI is the Most Impactful Tool in a Business’s Sustainability StrategyBryan Ha
Head of Public Policy, Hong Kong
Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services
Head of Public Policy, Hong Kong
Bryan Ha leads the public policy work of AWS in Hong Kong, with overall responsibility for policy, regulatory matters and government affairs in Hong Kong. Before joining AWS in late 2022, Bryan was a directorate officer in the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. During his 18-year government career, Bryan formulated and implemented policies relating to external affairs, innovation and technology, public finance, elderly care, vocational education, and district administration, including postings in Berlin and Washington D.C.
Bryan studied and worked in the U.K. and Germany from 1995 to 2004. He holds a Master of Engineering in Computing (first class) from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, and worked as a software designer/engineer at Deutsche Börse and Nortel Networks. Since 2025, Bryan serves on the Board of AmCham Hong Kong. He is also a Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and a Full Member of the Hong Kong Computer Society.
My sustainability goals for 2025:
To create synergy between Amazon and HKSAR government’s sustainability goals.
Frederick Lee
Executive Director, Centre for Water Technology and Policy
The University of Hong Kong
The University of Hong Kong
Executive Director, Centre for Water Technology and Policy
Dr. Frederick Lee holds a PhD in Urban Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and serves as the Executive Director of the Centre for Water Technology and Policy at The University of Hong Kong. His current research focuses on two critical water sustainability nexus issues: the water-energy-climate linkage and water-ecology interactions. He is completing a government-funded applied research project that explores how the integration of smart technologies and behavioral ‘nudging’ strategies can enhance water conservation outcomes in both domestic and non-domestic contexts. Dr. Lee also serves as Project Director for the Water-smart Taskforce Programme, a city-wide, government-sponsored water conservation initiative. He is a Fellow at Civic Exchange.
My Sustainability Goals for 2025:
Goal #1: A significant reduction in the overall level of freshwater consumption in both the domestic and the non-domestic sectors
Goal #2: An enhanced level of community understanding of the importance of prioritizing water loss control in managing the city’s water system
Yan-lok, Roger WONG
Director of Water Supplies
Water Supplies Department, HKSARG
Water Supplies Department, HKSARG
Director of Water Supplies
Ir Roger WONG joined the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government in 1995 as an Assistant Engineer. Before joining the Water Supplies Department, he worked in the Highways Department, Civil Engineering and Development Department and Development Bureau, overseeing the strategic planning and implementation of various infrastructure development projects and relevant public works policies.
My Sustainability Goals for 2025:
Despite being surrounded by the sea on three sides, Hong Kong has always been shortage of potable and natural fresh water resources (no natural lakes, large rivers or underground water), with a densely populated centre of trade and industry together with its rapid development needs. Ir Roger Wong’s sustainable goal is to lead the Water Supplies Department (“WSD”) of HKSAR government to improve the sustainability, eco-friendliness, reliability and quality of water supply services by applying state-of-the-art innovative technologies, data-driven management, AI-powered operation and maintenance as well as citizen-oriented customer services for overcoming the constraints imposed by physical conditions.
The Institute for the Environment at HKUST is a multidisciplinary research institute that addresses pressing environmental challenges—such as climate change, pollution, and resource scarcity—through regional collaboration, policy-relevant research, and partnerships across academia, industry, and NGOs, promoting a greener, healthier Hong Kong, Greater Bay Area, and beyond.
General Enquiry Email Address: ienv@ust.hk
General Enquiry Phone Number: 2358 6901
Since 2006, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud. AWS has been continually expanding its services to support virtually any workload, and it now has more than 240 fully featured services for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, media, and application development, deployment, and management from 117 Availability Zones within 37 geographic regions, with announced plans for 13 more Availability Zones and four more AWS Regions in Chile, New Zealand, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. Millions of customers—including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies—trust AWS to power their infrastructure, become more agile, and lower costs. To learn more about AWS, visit aws.amazon.com.
Our sustainability goals for 2025:
Transition to carbon-free energy: The Climate Pledge: Amazon’s commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040
Legal Name: Amazon Web Services Hong Kong Limited
General Enquiry Email Address: aws-hk@amazon.com