Hong Kong residents oppose plan for development of wetlands

Yuen Long residents are up in arms over a plan to build more than 2,500 flats in part of Nam Sang Wai wetlands.

The proposal, jointly submitted by Henderson Land Development and KHI Holdings Group, involves turning a 178.7 hectare area at the Nam Sang Wai wetlands into a development site for more than 2,500 residential flats as well as a 99 hectare wetland enhancement area. It will include 140 three-storey houses, 29 apartment blocks 25-storeys high, two clubhouses, one mall, and a centre for elderly people.

Yuen Long district councillor Wong Wai-yin launched a three-day campaign against the proposal and has collected 1,581 letters of opposition.

"A wetland as big as Nam Sang Wai is very rare in Hong Kong," Wong said. "If residential buildings are built, even if [the developer proposes to have] a nature reserve and wetland enhancement area, it wouldn't be the natural wetland any more."

A spokesman for the developers said: "In contrast to a predictable dead-end for the wetlands, our proposal will improve Nam Sang Wai's ecological environment and raise its ecological value, making the area more suitable habitat for wild fauna and flora."

The work would rearrange fish ponds, remove waste dumps and pond bunds would be reduced or removed.