Island residents warn against Lantau Tomorrow Vision reclamation, fearing pollution would be ‘sins for a thousand years’
- In second part of three-part series on Lantau reclamation, the Post talks to people who live on coasts nearby
- Concerns raised over climate change, altered sea currents and livelihood of fishermen
As Lam Chi-ngai, 76, sets foot on the remote Sunshine Island, mosquitoes swarm parts of his exposed skin, hungry for a rare taste of human blood.
But the ex-resident soldiers on, not bothering to swat at the pests. “I’ve been on this island for too long,” he said. “Its plants, its animals and I are one.”
Sunshine Island, a mostly unknown land mass in the waters east of Hong Kong’s Lantau Island, is Lam’s spiritual home, with its clean air and untouched environment having healed him in times of illness. He has lived on it for two years, and is the only former resident who returns to stay regularly in a tiny stone hut – the only one on the island which still retains a roof.
But the magical power the 54-hectare isle holds for Lam may soon be no more, as nearby, a site has been identified for four artificial islands proposed in an ambitious government plan for housing supply.
Concerns have centred on pollution and environmental damage arising from the creation of 1,700 hectares of new land.
Residents fear that climate change bringing unpredictable weather and rising sea levels would not bode well for such a flood-prone investment. As marine channels are narrowed, the shrinking sea area would also mean fishermen have less space to ply their trade.
“[The reclamation] will damage the ecosystems of the sea and its surrounding areas greatly,” Lam said. “It’s too radical and too large in scale.”