The harbour was originally 6,500 hectares in size and by 1990, about 2,600 hectares had been reclaimed, according to Winston Chu Ka-sun, chairman of the Society for the Protection of the Harbour.
Mr Chu says the government's plan to reclaim a further 1,297 hectares would reduce the harbour to just 40 per cent of its original size. 'It was in danger of becoming Victoria River,' says Mr Chu.
In 1995, when Mr Chu found out about the current reclamation plan, a further 661 hectares had been reclaimed, reducing the harbour to half its original size. Mr Justice Michael Hartmann yesterday postponed to Monday a judgment on an application by the Society for the Protection of the Harbour to stop work on the 23-hectare Central Reclamation III Project until the government's appeal is heard against halting the project in the Court of Final Appeal later this year.
To ease traffic congestion between Central and Wan Chai, the government wants to use the reclaimed land for a bypass road. The original plan was to reclaim 32 hectares but this was scaled back after public consultation, says Mr Chu.
It is already half of what it was originally, he adds. Further planned reclamation will reduce it to one quarter, and 'it will become between 800 metres and 1,000 metres wide, which is narrower than many rivers in the world'.