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Outrage Over New Housing Project Near Hong Kong Wetland Park

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Source:scmp

Academics and environmental groups have urged the government to review its wetland conservation policy after the Buildings Department approved another housing project on the edge of Hong Kong Wetland Park.

The department revealed last month that it had approved the building plans of Mutual Luck Investment, a subsidiary of property giant Cheung Kong, to build 19 residential towers with nearly 2,000 total flats in Fung Lok Wai, one of the last remaining wetland areas to the east of the nature park.

Construction of the project is set to begin after the developer pays the government a land premium.

The Mutual Luck project would be the second major residential development to be built near the Tin Shui Wai conservation and education park in recent years.

Since 2017, developer Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) has been in the process of building 76 housing towers on two sites to the west of the wetland park. The buildings are on both two sides of the park’s main entrance on Wetland Park Road.

The park, opened to the public in 2006, was intended to be a mitigation eco-reserve to make up for the wetlands that were lost when Tin Shui Wai New Town was developed in the 1990s.

Wetland Park

consists of a visitor centre and a 60-hectare wetland reserve. It is located in Inner Deep Bay, which was recognised as one of the world’s 2,300 vital wetland sites under the 1995 Ramsar Convention. The area is a wintering site for about one-tenth of the world’s black-faced spoonbills, an endangered species of East Asian migratory water birds.

The area is protected by local authorities as an officially designated wetland conservation area and a wetland buffer area.Roy Ng Hei-man, campaign manager for the Conservancy Association, said the latest residential developments would threaten the habitat of the birds and other wildlife.

“The SHKP project is in a wetland buffer area, where low-density residential development is allowed as long as the developer proves that the project would not have negative impact on the natural habitat,” Ng said.

“But this assessment policy is problematic because it assesses individual projects, while we are seeing more and more such projects in the area.”

Billy Hau Chi-hang, a University of Hong Kong biologist and a member of the Town Planning Board (TPB), conceded that the current situation was “not ideal”

The wetland park should have a buffer zone, and houses should not be built on its periphery.    Billy Hau Chi-hang, biologist and Town Planning Board member

“The wetland park should have a buffer zone, and houses should not be built on its periphery. I hope that there can be a green buffer to minimise light pollution and other impacts of the residential buildings,” Hau said.

Under the TPB’s guidelines, residential projects in the wetland buffer area may be given special consideration if they provide satisfactory ecological impact assessments.

A spokeswoman for SHKP said the company’s development in the buffer area in Tin Shui Wai “complies with all applicable government regulatory requirements including those on the environment in its design and construction”.

Ng said the project in Fung Lok Wai was potentially more problematic because it is located in a wetland conservation area, which means the site is more sensitive than SHKP’s location.

Ng noted that while the guidelines stipulated that new development within the wetland conservation area would not be allowed unless there is overriding public interest, it also stated that the board could consider limited low-density private residential projects if there were strong justifications.

“The developer claimed that construction of the Fung Lok Wai project was limited to 5 per cent of the 80 hectare site, with the rest of the area turned into a reserve. But we still think that it opened the floodgates and set a very bad precedent,” he said.

A black-faced spoonbill in Hong Kong. One-tenth of the endangered species of East Asian water birds spends winter in Wetland Park. Photo: Hong Kong Birdwatching Society

In 2013, the TPB gave approved the controversial wetland housing plan in Fung Lok Wai with 17 conditions attached. It came soon after WWF Hong Kong, the city’s biggest environmental group, pulled out of the project, saying it was not confident that the proposals would meet conservation objectives.

Hong Kong Birdwatching Society’s senior conservation officer, Woo Ming-chuan, said it was time for the government and the board to tighten housing estate requirements in the wetlands.

“Birds are sensitive to light and noise. If buildings are built near their habitat, light emitted from these structures at night, and noise during the day, would affect them,” she said.

“The town planning board is supposed to be the gatekeeper, and it should not give land owners the false idea that they can keep building in the buffer or conservation areas.”


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