Green groups plead against incinerator site
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.'
He cited the report, which recorded 49 finless porpoises, a vulnerable species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, in waters near Shek Kwu Chau. This is one-third of Hong Kong's porpoise population.
Leung is also concerned that building and operating the incinerator will shorten the breeding success of the rare white-bellied sea eagle. A pair at Shek Kwu Chau is one of only eight active breeding pairs recorded in Hong Kong.
Clive Noffke, of the Green Lantau Association, also made a submission objecting to the site. 'We do not understand why proposed conservation areas are not a category for exclusion, nor why a publicly endorsed planning strategy was ignored.'
Meanwhile, a group of fisherman in Cheung Chau yesterday staged a protest involving 200 boats sailing round Shek Kwu Chau. Chan Shup-ng, a representative for the group, said construction on the site would disturb the marine habitat and affect fishermen's livelihoods.
There are too many doubts for council members to give the green light on Monday
Alan Leung Sze-lun, conservation manager of WWF Hong Kong
