The notorious Kai Tak nullah - once one of the city's most putrid waterways - is to get a new life as a landscaped stream along its full length.
The government has abandoned plans to cement over part of the nullah in Wong Tai Sin and the Drainage Services Department is working on a plan to be released for consultation next month.
The change of heart follows the submission of a proposal by legislator Chan Yuen-han, who urged that the 1,200-metre stream be modelled on the revitalised Cheonggyecheon Stream in the heart of Seoul.
Water quality in the nullah - which often produced an acrid stench over surrounding neighbourhoods and the former Kai Tak airport - is said to have improved, but conservationists say it will have to be raised further if the proposal is to go ahead.
The nullah, stretching from Hoi Hung Road to Prince Edward Road East and entering Victoria Harbour beside the former airport runway, is divided into upper and lower courses. The 500-metre upper course, from Wong Tai Sin police station to Tai Shing Street, was to have been covered.
Ms Chan said yesterday she hoped the government, now that it had given up the idea of 'killing' the watercourse, would follow the example of the Seoul stream, which was said to have cut average temperatures in the city centre by 3.6 degrees Celsius.
'If you walk along the nullah before sunset, you will find egrets stopping by and fish swimming in it,' said Ms Chan, who prepared the alternative proposal along with Chinese University and the Conservancy Association.