Environment takes priority over property rights, Hong Kong court told in waste dumping challenge

The protection of the environment should take precedence over private property rights, a barrister arguing against a decision to allow construction waste to be dumped on the wetlands of South Lantau told the High Court on Tuesday.

Stewart Wong Kai-ming SC, for Mui Wo resident Christian Masset, said there was a gap in waste disposal laws that had to be plugged.

But the director of environmental protection argued that the authorities should be cautious about introducing measures not stipulated in the law even though the protection of the environment was a “laudable aim”.

The environment regulator was responding to the legal challenge mounted by Masset, a former chairman of green group Clear the Air, against the department’s decisions to allow construction waste to be dumped at four sites near the wetlands at Pui O between 2014 and this year.

The sites are on the fringe of the wetlands between Ham Tin San Tsuen and Pui O beach, which are zoned for coastal protection but with an awkward patchwork of private, corporate and government ownership.

Wong said the dumping of concrete on the coastal protected areas was harmful to the environment, with birds, buffaloes and the natural habitat in the vicinity all being affected.

He argued that the environmental protection chief, once he was approached by a property owner, would acknowledge the request and give permission, but environmental considerations would not be taken into account in making a decision.