Green groups urged the government's environmental advisers not to approve the choice of an eco-sensitive island as the site of an incinerator project, saying officials had failed to give adequate data on the project's environmental impact.
WWF Hong Kong made the call ahead of a meeting on Monday by a committee of the Environmental Protection Department's Advisory Council on the Environment, which will discuss a government report on the siting of the facility.
The environmental impact assessment report was released for public discussion last month when the government announced it had chosen Shek Kwu Chau, six kilometres south of Lantau, in favour of a more widely expected site at Tsang Tsui in Tuen Mun.
WWF Hong Kong criticised the government-commissioned report as 'not following the best practices'.
'There are too many doubts for council members to give the green light on Monday. Officials must give much more data before asking for permission to build the incinerator,' said Alan Leung Sze-lun, the group's conservation manager.
Leung said the government itself had proposed Shek Kwu Chau as a conservation area in 2001. 'Had the plan been realised, the island would not have been chosen for the facility.'