Letters | Why old Hong Kong fishing village can’t help to ease housing crisis: lack of facilities and transport
Even if old buildings in the fishing village could be reused for housing, the government would be on the hook for providing reliable transport services
As someone who has lived in Ma Wan for the past eight years, I would like to respond to the letter from Peter Tanner, advocating that Ma Wan Old Village be used to house 430 families (“Rebuild Ma Wan for a Hong Kong desperate for housing”, February 10). Leaving aside the question of whether, as he contends, the existing derelict buildings could easily be reused (dubious) or could be replaced by prefabricated units (as proposed previously by Ling Kar-kan), this idea fails to take into account the real issue, which is the lack of infrastructure (there are no facilities at all in the Old Village) and especially transport to serve that part of the island.
Mr Tanner says Ma Wan has plenty of buses and ferries. What he may not appreciate is, firstly, that in rush hours the buses and ferries are already packed to capacity, despite running at very frequent intervals. It would be logistically impossible to handle a sudden increase of around 10 per cent in Ma Wan’s population, which is what 430 households would represent.
Secondly, in recent years the residents have had to fight two major campaigns to retain adequate transport at all – transport is controlled by the Park Island Transport Company (a subsidiary of Sun Hung Kai) and they are constantly attempting to reduce services (the ferries have already been slashed to a minimum) and raise fares. This is because providing sufficient transport services for a community of this kind can only be done at a loss – unless the government is prepared to subsidise them, which so far it has refused to do. The community has approached other transport companies about taking over, but they have declined.
Park Island and Ma Wan residents protest against a proposed cut in off-peak ferry services, at the Park Island Market on Ma Wan Island in July 2018. Photo: David Wong
The Old Village is an hour’s walk from the ferry pier and half an hour from the nearest existing bus stop, so transport is essential. The only way to make a community there viable would be to either extend the existing bus routes (which would make journey times for all residents unacceptably long) or create new bus routes for the Old Village only (which would not be financially viable).
Any scheme to use Ma Wan for housing, whether it be short-term housing in the Old Village or the proposal for a completely new, much larger, site in South Ma Wan which is currently under consideration, can only be an option if the government is prepared to make a massive investment in infrastructure and subsidised transport.
So far there is no indication that it is prepared to do this or that such a scheme would offer a cost-efficient solution to Hong Kong’s housing problem.
Incidentally, Mr Tanner is quite wrong in saying that the “vibrant community” of Ma Wan Village is gone: the village is alive and well and thriving in its new location – the new houses may not be as picturesque as the old ones, but they’re an awful lot more comfortable and convenient to live in.
Sherry Lee, Park Island, Ma Wan
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Village of Ma Wan short on infrastructure and transportto help ease housing crisis
