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Anh-thu Phan

SOME OF HONG KONG'S most historic beaches are among its most polluted, according to the think-tank Civic Exchange. In order to find out why and to promote public involvement in the clean-ups, the group has launched an Adopt-a-Beach programme.

After several months of canvassing businesses, residents and government departments over two pilot areas, the group followed up in June with the start of monthly clean-ups at Waterfall Bay Beach on the southern side of Hong Kong Island.

According to some historians, Hong Kong was named for the 'fragrant' waters coming from these falls. The ties to nearby Aberdeen, one of the island's oldest fishing villages, are beyond doubt, however. The clean-ups have drawn an average of 20 volunteers each month, hauling in a total of 20 to 40 bags of rubbish each time, according to co-ordinator Toby Forster.

Today marks the start of monthly campaigns at Tai Long Wan, another historic beach. An impressive 120 volunteers from Hong Yip Holdings, the building management unit of developer Sun Hung Kai, will hit the beach at 11am and stay until late afternoon.

Associate editor Anh-Thu Phan   spoke to Civic Exchange founder Christine Loh Kung-wai to learn more about the Adopt-a-Beach programme.

Q: What is the idea behind the project?

A: We choose non-gazetted beaches. These are the ones where the government does not provide regular clean-ups. There are two goals.

The first is to explore how to design community events that are effective in raising awareness about marine litter. Many people have done beach clean-ups, but few have been well-documented enough to enable others to learn from them.

The second goal is to explore how to get government departments to co-ordinate better in clean-ups. By doing a continuous programme, you get to know about systemic issues and then can try to fix them.

Q: Why are public beaches and waters so polluted?

A: If you look at the different types of litter on beaches and the surrounding areas, you find out quite a lot about how they got on the beach in the first place.

Some pieces came from afar, for example from a construction site somewhere, or from fishing boats. Some were just left by beachgoers.

Q: What can the public do?

A: Companies, chambers of commerce, clubs and associations, schools and even resident groups can sign up to clean a beach on one or more occasions. We also had several police units once.

We give them a pamphlet that explains the background of the beach they are cleaning and we are trying to see if by making the place itself come alive, people will feel a greater sense of connection to it than just coming for a one-off event. We have people there to help out and to enhance understanding of the occasion and, in future, we can keep in touch with them.

Q: What have you learned so far from the project?

A: The public, once they get there, work really hard. I had a group of young folks who came with me to Aberdeen one time for a clean-up and they were shocked by what was there. When we are there, government-contracted cleaners work harder because they see how hard ordinary citizens are prepared to work.

By citizens going out to clean, the government may give a bit more attention, since they do not want it to appear that they are not doing enough. Actually, the Marine Department [which cleans debris from the water] and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department [which cleans up on land] are doing a lot nowadays.

The problem is that there needs to be a strategy for each area to firstly clean what is there, and then on how to change Hong Kong people's behaviour in littering.

Q: Did anything surprise you?

A: The surprising thing is how much rubbish is around that has been there for years and not been cleaned up. Another surprise is that many young beachgoers, for example those who went to beaches at Mid-Autumn Festival, really trashed the place. You would have thought that with better education they would be a lot more responsible.

Q: What are your plans for the future?

A: Now that we have identified that what is needed is a clear strategy to clean up existing rubbish, our next project is to work with the different government units to see how to devise such a policy. We would like to take Aberdeen Harbour as the pilot site. At the same time, we are exploring with residents and stakeholders in the Aberdeen area to work on how to change behaviour. We are in the process of trying to reach out to more people.

Q: What does the project mean to you?

A: Cleaning Hong Kong and keeping it clean is such a basic challenge to our sense of identity and belonging. I worry that if we cannot do this, it will be even harder to do much more complex things such as improving air pollution, reforming the education system or restructuring the economy.

Graphic: PHANGWK



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