Rehabilitated drug addicts on Shek Kwu Chau could become fish farmers if a proposal to create Hong Kong's first marine fish hatchery is realised.
The reformed addicts would also be tourist guides, showing visitors around the project on the island, 3km southwest of Cheung Chau.
The proposal by the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Abusers (Sarda), which runs Hong Kong's biggest voluntary drug rehabilitation programmes on the four-square-kilometre island, would see private investors setting up a 20,000 sq ft fish hatchery in a bay near the pier, Sarda executive director Peter Pi Wing-lee said.
The society is also recommending a man-made waterfall on a 12-metre high cliff behind the hatchery as a tourist attraction.
'The hatchery will resolve Hong Kong's lack of local fish fry as well as providing meaningful therapy for addicts or ex-addicts through decent job opportunities,' Mr Pi said.
'At the same time, the waterfall and perhaps angling would attract tourists, and the tourists in turn would also be given anti-drug messages.'