Green Groups Blast Container Port Island Plan

Several green groups on Monday urged the public to support a campaign against plans to build an artificial island off Lantau and use it as a container port.

The call comes after a Hong Kong resident, Tony Fung, recently raised objections to the “North-East Lantau Outline Zoning Plan” and applied to the Town Planning Board for the area to instead be “reserved for general marine functions uses”.

At present, the 3.2 square kilometre area in waters east of Lantau near Kau Yi Chau is zoned for the expansion of the Kwai Chung container port.

The board is inviting views on Fung’s application until Friday, and is scheduled to discuss the matter in January next year. Conservation groups are calling on members of the public to write to the board to support Fung's bid.

Paul Zimmerman from Designing Hong Kong said there is no longer a need to expand the container port, and people should support the conservation of the sea.

"The [container port] plan is of course no longer necessary, because our container throughput is going down," he told an online press conference.

Meanwhile, the environmental group Green Power said Hong Kong is lagging far behind in terms of having marine reserves and parks.

It said as Hong Kong has signed an international convention to maintain biodiversity, it is obliged to set aside 10 percent of its sea area for conservation by this year. However, the figure is only at three percent at the moment, the group said.

The press conference was jointly held by various groups, including the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society and Support HK.