Incinerator plans leave Lantau split
A huge incinerator that will be visible from pristine South Lantau has enraged some residents. But with tourism booming and a third runway on the cards, other locals want development
It was a perfect day when a crowd gathered on Pui O Beach in South Lantau. The sun shone from a clear blue sky, and the gentle swell - ideal for novice surfers - provided a picturesque backdrop. Casual onlookers could have easily mistaken the gathering for a celebration, if not for the people shouting into megaphones.
Sporting bright red "The Naked Islands Project" T-shirts, some protestors formed a circle while others carried a large model of an incinerator decorated with a skull and crossbones and belching dry ice from its stack. The July 22 gathering, known as "Motion in the Ocean", was based on a traditional Hawaiian surfer's funeral rite, and held to protest against plans for a massive waste incinerator off nearby Shek Kwu Chau.
To make Lantau more attractive to tourists we must develop
But for the residents and activists, a feeling of desperation hung in the air, with many believing the incinerator was the latest sign of growing pressure on South Lantau from the government and developers.
It was as if they were symbolically mourning the death of Hong Kong's environment and their way of life on Lantau.
Also joining the protest were activists from South Lantau's Living Islands Movement, a group that promotes the sustainable development of Hong Kong's islands with a focus on Lantau, established 10 years ago by Lantau resident Bob Bunker. The group sees the problem as a two-pronged attack - one from developers keen to take advantage of the growing number of tourists and residents on Lantau, the other from a government that sees relatively remote South Lantau as an ideal dumping ground for facilities and projects unpopular with residents in more populated areas.
Bunker describes a decade spent protecting the area's environment from planned government projects, ranging from super prisons and drug rehabilitation centres to container ports. He says Lantau already shoulders an unfair share of Hong Kong's unpopular sites. "Radioactive waste is dumped on the Soko Islands, there is an explosives dump in Mui Wo and there are already seven prisons on Lantau," he says.