Industry across the territory's border is being blamed for a re-emergence of banned toxic chemicals in the SAR's prized marine environment.
Pollution is on the rise in Deep Bay - a breeding ground for fish stocks and home to many endangered migratory birds - since toxic industries were pushed north into Guangdong where pollution laws are not so tough, environmentalists said.
'Yes, we are going backwards,' World Wide Fund for Nature senior conservation officer, Alex Yau Shuk-kau, said yesterday during a promotion by the fund as part of its Year of the Ocean campaign.
'In the 1970s, people just dumped colourful heavy metals into the water with long-term damage.
'We passed anti-pollution laws. But now, just as we were doing in the 1970s, Guangdong is directly discharging polluted water into the marine environment.' Toxins from industries such as electric plating move down the Shenzhen River and accumulate as sludge on the seabed. Ms Yau said the toxins killed the rare Chinese white dolphin and also built up in their bodies' fat, which was then passed from mother to calf.
Environmental Protection Department studies confirmed that while the Government had tackled pollution on this side of the border, 'unprecedented' problems had arisen in the inner bay in recent years for which Hong Kong could not be blamed.
