Edwin Lau

Opinion | Behind Carrie Lam’s grand reclamation plan for Hong Kong lies an inconvenient truth

The chief executive is determined to push ahead with her Lantau Tomorrow Vision as a solution to the city’s housing crisis, but the environmental costs – for both Hong Kong and the mainland – are being glossed over and less ecologically damaging options effaced

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A girl protesting against the Lantau reclamation project sports a painting of an island and a pink dolphin on her forehead on October 14, 2018. Photo: Edward Wong

Edwin Lau

Published: 6:45am, 28 Oct 2020Updated: 8:18am, 28 Oct 2020

Increasing Hong Kong’s land supply through reclamation has became controversial as public awareness grows about the irreversible damage it causes to marine habitats.

Although the Chinese white dolphin was the mascot of the Hong Kong handover, its numbers have kept dropping because of large-scale infrastructure projects such as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge and Hong Kong airport’s third runway. There were 188 dolphins recorded in 2003 but only 32 in 2019, an alarming drop of 83 per cent.

This beloved mammal has been listed as a “Grade 1 national key protected animal” since 1988 and is also protected by Hong Kong law, but is now on the verge of extinction due to development without adequate consideration of sustainability. And Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor is, it seems, unconcerned.

Lam’s recent responses in media interviews about proposed large-scale reclamation off Lantau Island for increasing land supply give cause for greater anxiety about her apparent lack of environmental consciousness, and even logic.

It was reported that she does not consider reclamation in mainland waters to be an option because of President Xi Jinping’s passion for environmental conservation. But she apparently sees no problem for the ecosystem if the Hong Kong government carries out such reclamation in Hong Kong waters.

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Lam must be aware that there is no physical boundary separating Hong Kong waters from those of the mainland. If the marine habitat of Hong Kong is destroyed, a line on the map cannot prevent it from having an impact on the mainland’s natural environment.