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January, 2012:

Clean-air targets don’t measure up, critics say

Jan 17th, 2012
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SCMP outlines the continued lack of duty of care owed by Government to the people of Hong Kong

18 January 2012

Green groups angered by ‘half-hearted’ approach after objectives finally endorsed. They fall short of WHO standards and won’t take effect for another two years

Hong Kong’s clean-air targets will be toughened for the first time in a quarter of a century from 2014, but they will still fall short of World Health  Organisation standards.

Environmentalists criticised the long delay in adopting the new objectives and accused the government of taking a half-hearted approach to implementing more than 20 measures identified to improve air quality.

The Executive Council endorsed the new air quality targets, first put out for public consultation in 2009, yesterday. The Legislative Council must now approve changes to the Air Pollution Control Ordinance.

Secretary for the Environment Edward Yau Tang-wah said there was an urgent need to update air quality objectives, which had not changed since 1987. “But we have to understand that the ultimate WHO guidelines are a distant target. Even the European Union cannot fully adopt all of them,” Yau said.

“Given the surrounding environment of Hong Kong, we cannot set a goal that is unachievable.”

The new objectives, which lay down atmospheric concentration limits for seven pollutants, are between 10 per cent and 64 per cent more stringent than existing ones.

Yau said the government could not implement the full WHO guidelines at this stage as regional pollution was beyond its control. Instead, targets for three of the seven pollutants will be based on the WHO’s interim targets, which are intended to help territories with high levels of pollution move towards the full targets.

For the first time, the air quality standards will include a measure of airborne particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5), which are more harmful than larger particles as they can penetrate deep into people’s lungs. But the standards will be in line with the loosest of the three WHO interim targets for PM2.5, angering environmentalists.

A total of 22 measures – including phasing out heavily polluting vehicles, promoting hybrid or electric vehicles, and increasing the use of natural gas – had been identified by the government to help achieve the new standards, and Yau said most of them were being implemented.

The steps could extend Hongkongers’ average life expectancy by a month, officials said earlier.

There will be a three-year transitional period after 2014 to allow construction projects that begin earlier to continue under the old guidelines so they will not be delayed, Yau said.

The delay in implementation has meant some key projects, such as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge, have had their environmental impact assessments approved under the old air-quality guidelines.

The Airport Authority says it will apply the new guidelines when it carries out the environmental impact assessment on the proposed third runway at Chek Lap Kok, and adopt mitigation measures.

Mike Kilburn, head of environmental strategy at think tank Civic Exchange, said he was “extremely disappointed” with the two-year  delay in implementing the policy.

Dr Man Chi-sum, chief executive of environmental group Green Power, said that as well as setting new standards, the government must thoroughly implement the package of measures it set out to help meet the target. “Many of the measures are only being half-heartedly executed.”

Hahn Chu Hon-keung, senior environmental affairs manager at Friends of the Earth (Hong Kong), said the government had failed to set a timetable to reach the WHO’s highest targets and had set the target for PM2.5 at the lowest possible level.

joyce.ng@scmp.com

Air Quality Objectives to be updated for better air quality

Jan 17th, 2012
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http://7thspace.com/headlines/403857/air_quality_objectives_to_be_updated_for_better_air_quality.html

Hong Kong (HKSAR) – The Government will adopt proposed new Air Quality Objectives (AQOs) together with a package of air quality improvement measures, drawn up based on the results of public consultation, to better protect public health.

Speaking at a press conference today (January 17), the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Edward Yau, said thatfresh air is an essential part of a quality living environment and is vital to people’s health as well as maintaining the competitiveness of Hong Kong.

The Government will start preparatory work on the amendment of the Air Pollution Control Ordinance with an aim to table the Amendment Bill in the 2012-13 session of the Legislative Council. Taking account of the lead time for completing the legislative process and other necessary preparatory work, including formulation of modelling guidelines and compilation of emissions inventories, it is expected that the proposed new AQOs would take effect in 2014.

The Government will review the practicability of the tightened AQOs every five years and formulate the air quality improvement package accordingly.

In 2007, the Government commissioned a consultancy study to review Hong Kong’s existing AQOs and develop a long-term air quality management strategy.

Taking into account the World Health Organization (WHO)’s new guidelines and practices in other advanced countries, the review proposed a set of new AQOs benchmarked against the WHO’s Interim Targets and Air Quality Guidelines, accompanied by a host of proposed air quality improvement measures that are required to help Hong Kong achieve the new objectives.

The new AQOs (see Annex A) are comparable to those being adopted by the European Union and the United States.

To attain the new AQOs as soon as practicable, the Government has drawn up 19 air quality improvement measures (see Annex B) and has been pressing ahead with implementation of measures over which the community has wider consensus. In addition, the Government has put forward additional improvement initiatives targeting the problem of roadside nitrogen dioxide.

Further measures include retrofitting Euro II and III franchised buses with selective catalytic reduction devices to reduce their nitrogen oxide emissions. In addition, the Government has introduced the use of roadside remote sensing equipment and dynamometers for emissions testing to strengthen control of emissions from petrol and liquefied petroleum gas vehicles. The Government is also working on measures to reduce marine emissions to further improve air quality.

Having considered carefully the need to preserve the integrity of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) system as an ongoing mechanism, as well as regulatory certainty for proponents of projects that have already completed the EIA process, the Government proposes to provide for a time-limited transitional period of 36 months from the commencement date of the new AQOs. During this transitional period, the new AQOs would not apply to an application for variation of an Environmental Permit.

To underscore the Government’s commitment to adopting the best practices as well as to provide greater certainty to works departments in planning new development projects, all Government projects for which EIA studies have not yet commenced would endeavour to adopt the proposed new AQOs as the benchmark for conducting air quality assessment under the EIA studies.

Exco backs new air quality objectives

Jan 17th, 2012
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RTHK

17-01-2012

The Executive Council has approved new air quality objectives for Hong Kong, which will set more stringent caps on seven types of pollutants. The Environment Secretary, Edward Yau, says half of the objectives comply with the strictest standards set by the World Health Organisation, and the rest meet its ‘interim’ levels. Mr Yau said the government will draft the necessary legislation to enforce the new standards. Hong Kong’s air quality objectives were last updated in 1987.

Public ‘misled by primitive air checks’

17-01-2012http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/radio3/hongkongtoday/images/Subpage_12.gifhttps://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/?ui=2&ik=9ed62dbd70&view=att&th=134eac506ebd76ff&attid=0.3&disp=emb&zw
Professor Anthony Hedley
The Environmental Protection Department has been accused of misleading the public with “outdated and primitive” methods of measuring local air quality. Experts from the University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health say the measurements bear no relation to actual health risks.

Professor Anthony, Hedley from the University’s department of community medicine, says the public should know that poor air quality is extremely dangerous, particularly for children.

SCMP letter

Jan 17th, 2012
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SCMP Letter to Editor , 3 Jun 2005

We refer to the letter dated May 14 regarding waste treatment and the article ‘Ambitious scheme for waste treatment plant’, (City, May 14).

We share many of the concerns of Friends of the Earth regarding the planned use of large-scale incineration as the main method of destroying municipal solid waste.

But there is an alternative renewable energy technology that should be given consideration. It is a proper disposal system that:

1. does not pollute the air

2. does not create landfill

3. creates clean-burning gas for electric power generation

4. may produce potable water

5. allows the harvest of useful raw materials from waste

6. does not draw electricity from the grid after initial start-up

7. generates significant electric power to sell to the grid

8. has the ability to handle significant volumes

9. is competitive in price to set up

10. is relatively quick to install

11. could be set up as distributed plants to meet district requirements

This off-the-shelf technology has been in use for more than 60 years and is often known by such names as ‘electric pyrolysis’ or ‘plasma gasification’.

Its electric power generation uses traditional steam boiler or low heat output gas generators. We propose that the authorities in Hong Kong should visit such facilities in Taiwan, Japan, Hawaii and Europe.

The same waste-to-energy plants are being built in the US and the UK. It is a wonder that such an off-the-shelf technology has not been examined as a suitable solution for Hong Kong.

Wes Loran and Fraser Simpson, Pokfulam

Who’s talking rubbish about waste incinerator plan?

Jan 17th, 2012
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South China Morning Post – 17 Jan 2012

Alexander Luedi has a second letter in today’s paper in which he takes us to task for disagreeing with him over the choice of technology for the government’s proposed integrated waste management facility on Shek Wu Chau, off Lantau.

We suggested plasma arc technology should be considered, since it produces very low emissions compared with the conventional moving-grate incinerator the government is proposing to use.

Luedi refers to plasma arc technology as “something we consider about as expensive and, given the good track record of moving-grate incinerators, as unnecessary as sending the garbage to the sun”. He has called for “facts” to support our view, which is something his own lofty observations could benefit from.

The government is proposing a moving-grate incinerator to burn 3,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste per day, making it the biggest plant of its kind in the world.

Incinerators produce bottom ash and fly ash amounting to 30 to 50 per cent by volume of the original waste, which will have to be stabilised, loaded on to barges and dumped. Fly ash is toxic and has to be treated as a hazardous waste. According to the British Society for Ecological Medicine, it is one of the most toxic materials on the planet.

“Abatement equipment in modern incinerators merely transfers the toxic load, notably that of dioxins and heavy metals, from airborne emissions to the fly ash,” it said. “This fly ash is light, readily windborne and mostly of low particle size. It represents a considerable and poorly understood health hazard.”

Plasma arc technology, by contrast, produces virtually no emissions, no toxic ash or solid waste effluent. It produces small quantities of vitrified slag, which can be used in making concrete, road fill, bricks and other manufacturing uses.

The synthesis gas, or syngas, that is captured in the process can be variously used for producing electricity, or converted into jet fuel, or bio-diesel, depending on the technology employed, which in turn offsets the capital costs and waste disposal fees. Nor does it require a 130-metre stack.

As for the “good track record” of moving-grate incinerators that Luedi talks of, we see that a team from Imperial College London has been commissioned to carry out a survey after fears emerged about the health risks posed by incinerators, particularly for young children. This came after alarming discoveries of a higher incidence of infant deaths among those living downwind of a number of incinerators in Britain.

The good people of Detroit, home to the world’s largest incinerator, are three times as likely to be hospitalised for asthma compared with Michigan as a whole, and asthma death rates in the city are two times that for the state. There are plenty of other examples of incinerators being fined or closed down for exceeding emission caps.

Luedi says plasma arc is expensive compared with traditional moving-grate incinerators. An incinerator in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for example, has become so expensive to run it has bankrupted the town.

Meanwhile, a study in the US shows that a plasma arc gasification facility is near break-even at a capacity of about 180 to 270 tonnes of waste per day and generated net revenue using higher levels of waste. Traditional mass burn incineration produced negative net annual returns.

The study is by Dr Gary Young, an expert in industrial processes and the author of the recently published Municipal Solid Waste To Energy Conversion Processes; Economic, Technical and Renewable Comparisons.

He concludes “plasma arc gasification is an economically viable technology for managing municipal solid waste”, adding that the process is a “technologically advanced and environmentally friendly method of disposing of waste, converting it into commercially usable by-products”.

This is why we feel it should be considered for Hong Kong. The scheme favoured by Luedi is on the verge of obsolescence.

The plant will burn 3,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste a day.

China’s Pollution Is So Insane You Can See It From Space

Jan 16th, 2012
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Description: http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2012/01/174bb4c8d48786e496706da9046e72a7.gif

http://gizmodo.com/5875972/chinas-pollution-is-so-insane-you-can-see-it-from-space/

China’s Pollution Is So Insane You Can See It From Space

Description: China's Pollution Is So Insane You Can See It From Space

This is really bad. NASA has published an image of the pollution haze taking all over the North China Plain. Yes, it’s so bad that you can see it taking over thousands of square miles from space.

Things were so bad that visibility dropped to 200 meters. The Chinese capital’s airport had to cancel 43 flights and delayed 80 more.

The first image—taken by NASA’s Aqua satellite—shows the situation on January 10. The entire North China Plain was covered with a gray pollution haze. You can also see white patches: that’s normal fog hanging below the haze. On the second image, you can see the skies on the next day: the heaviest pollution is mostly gone, moved by the wind.

According to NASA’s Earth Observatory, the haze is mostly made of two kinds of particles, PM10 and PM2.5. The number refers to their size: 10 micrometers and 2.5 micrometers. They are made of “dust, liquid drops, and soot from burning fuel or coal.” Most of the pollution is made of PM2.5. These are highly reflective, which is why we can see them from space when their concentration is high enough.

The 10-micrometer particles enter the lungs and cause respiratory problems. The 2.5-micrometer particles can embed themselves deep in the lungs and occasionally enter the blood stream. These particles can cause cancer and extreme respiratory problems.

The problem is extremely bad. The PM10 density was 560 micrograms per cubic meter of air. In the US, concentrations of 150 micrograms per cubic meter of air are considered beyond the limit. But the PM2.5 concentration is even worse. On January 10, the concentration was literally off the scale. Things are so bad that the US Embassy in Beijing reports on the PM2.5 concentration level every hour.

This winter haze is caused by a combination of pollution and temperature inversion: cold air gets trapped by a blanket of warmer air above, causing a pocket that gets filled with pollution. In the case of China, it builds up pretty fast.

Apparently, China is planning to monitor the concentration of PM2.5 in 2016. That may be too late for much of the population, who is deeply affected by the situation. It’s no coincidence that their architects are obsessed by air quality control inside their buildings. [NASA]

Mainland shames HK in ways that go beyond smog data

Jan 16th, 2012
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South China Morning Post – 16 Jan 2012

Beijing’s honesty about pollution levels forced our city to come clean. What other examples should we heed?

At last, after years of criticism, the Hong Kong government is to begin monitoring the concentration of PM2.5 pollutants in our atmosphere.

If, like me, you are not good at acronyms, then PM stands for “particulate matter”, or particles. And 2.5 means less than 2.5 micrometres across.

That’s small. In contrast, a human hair is typically 100 micrometres across, while the diameter of a red blood cell is more like 10 micrometres.

So in other words, PM2.5 means specks of stuff – usually the unburned carbon pumped out by diesel engines and coal-fired power stations – tiny enough to penetrate deep into the bronchioles of our lungs, where they do irreparable harm.

Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department has long resisted publishing real-time data on these nasties, presumably because the results would be acutely embarrassing.

Last week, however, the government said it would begin monitoring PM2.5 concentrations by the end of March.

You have to suspect this change of heart was prompted by the Beijing government’s announcement a couple of weeks ago that it would begin publishing real-time PM2.5 data of its own later this month.

With Beijing, infamously one of the most polluted cities on earth, coming clean about its problems, Hong Kong was left with egg on its face. It was fast becoming even more embarrassing for the Hong Kong government to be seen as less open than Beijing than to admit the extent of its own PM2.5 pollution.

Clearly the fear of losing face can be a powerful motivation. So, in case the threat of further embarrassment might prompt action in other areas, here are six more ways in which Hong Kong lags woefully behind the mainland.

1) Unlike Hong Kong, the mainland boasts an anti-monopoly law, and the authorities are not afraid to use it to protect consumers.

Although sceptics had alleged the law was aimed mainly at shutting foreign companies out of mainland markets, last year the authorities surprised everyone when they slapped two leading state-owned enterprises, China Telecom (SEHK: 0728) and China Unicom (SEHK: 0762, announcements,news) , with heavy fines for illegally conspiring to fixing broadband prices.

Meanwhile, six years after the Hong Kong government pledged to introduce its own competition law, the bill remains stuck before the Legislative Council, where the city’s powerful business interests are doing their best to water it down so they can continue to rip Hong Kong’s consumers off with impunity.

2) On the mainland, expectant mothers are legally entitled to a generous 14 weeks of maternity leave if they are under 25, or 18 weeks if older; a period which can be extended to 24 weeks. What’s more, they are entitled to full pay at the average monthly wages paid by their employer, which provides a much-needed windfall for lower-paid mothers.

In contrast, Hong Kong women are entitled to just 10 weeks of maternity leave on reduced pay, set at 80 per cent of their normal rate provided they have worked at the company for more than nine months. Otherwise, they get nothing.

3) In 2010, the mainland generated 18 per cent of its electricity from non-polluting renewable sources.

In Hong Kong, the proportion was zero.

4) The Hong Kong government likes to boast about the city’s high standard of education. But according to last year’s educational attainment statistics compiled by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Hong Kong pupils are dunces compared with their Shanghai counterparts.

Pupils in Shanghai get top marks for their mathematical ability, scoring 600 points on the OECD’s standardised ranking. Hong Kong pupils score just 555.

In science, Shanghai gets 575 marks to Hong Kong’s 549, and for reading proficiency Shanghai pupils score 556 marks, while their Hong Kong counterparts get a lowly 533.

So although the Hong Kong government has picked the education sector as a key driver of future economic growth, the city fails its exams compared with Shanghai.

5) The Hong Kong government also likes to brag about the excellence of the city’s “cultural and creative industries”. But of the top 10 most popular Chinese-language films according to the IMDb database, none was a Hong Kong production and only three counted as Hong Kong co-productions, with the city companies very much junior partners. Mainland-produced films dominate the ranking.

6) Finally, the mainland has built and commissioned thousands upon thousands of government buildings in the past few years, with no recorded cases of legionella infestation. The Hong Kong government couldn’t even manage to build itself a disease-free headquarters.

We should hang our heads in shame.

tom.holland@scmp.com

Updated air quality guide would show threat to health from larger Chek Lap Kok

Jan 16th, 2012
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South China Morning Post – 16 Jan 2012

Air quality is a non-negotiable right and, with public health, a matter of urgency, which should always be protected and guaranteed.

Nevertheless, in Hong Kong it falls behind economic concerns and everyone must fend for themselves with masks. Only those who are better off can escape the polluted roadside air in their private cars, instead of waiting for buses.

Supporters of the airport expansion say green groups object to all kinds of infrastructure projects when it comes to the environment and are irrational. However, based on public surveys, people put a lot of trust in green groups. Perhaps this is because of our persistence to work for a single interest: a sustainable (in other words, healthy) environment for all. This stubbornness has resulted in us calling for a simple air quality objective guide upgrade since 1987.

Renewal of the guide would affect the airport expansion plan. The government’s current health standards are described by Professor Anthony Hedley, of the University of Hong Kong, as lax and dangerous. But based on those standards officials would argue that the airport expansion would have insignificant consequences. What if you tighten this standard, which has been delayed for the past 25 years for places like Tung Chung Citygate, the airport itself or other locations? This would actually show that an expanded Chek Lap Kok would cause invisible health hazards like PM2.5 (fine particle concentrations) to get into our lungs.

I doubt if the air quality objective guide will be updated before Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen departs. The third runway is an example of the inconsistency between his rhetoric and his actions. When his first term started seven years ago he said he would not tolerate our first-class city’s poor air.

But what can we expect from chief executive candidate Henry Tang Ying-yen? During his term as chief secretary he was tasked with updating the air quality objective guide by the end of 2011, but nothing happened. I don’t want to prejudge. I hope whoever is elected will promptly act in the interest of our health.

First, he must immediately upgrade the guide and set a timetable for its compliance within four years. Second, within this four-year time frame, the new guide should be applied to pending environmental impact assessments, whether it is the airport or other infrastructure projects.

Chu Hon-keung, senior environmental affairs manager, Friends of the Earth (HK)

China sets pace for smoggy Hong Kong think-tank – Channel NewsAsia

Jan 15th, 2012
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http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1176892/1/.html
Asia Pacific News

China sets pace for smoggy Hong Kong: think-tank
Posted: 15 January 2012 1349 hrs

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HONG KONG: Beijing’s decision to come clean on its dirty air has embarrassed
Hong Kong, where smog kills hundreds of people a year, hurts business and
drives away talent, a think-tank has said.

Mike Kilburn, head of environmental strategy at non-profit group Civic
Exchange, said Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang’s failure to fix the
city’s air quality could have far-reaching consequences for its
competitiveness.

“The Hong Kong government must introduce new air quality objectives
immediately, especially now that China has put out its own air quality
objective,” he told AFP.

“Hong Kong is in a highly embarrassing position now that China has
introduced new measures.”

Beijing last week bowed to a vocal online campaign for a change in the way
air quality is measured and pledged to start publishing figures showing the
smallest, most dangerous pollution particles.

The Chinese capital currently bases its air quality information on particles
of 10 micrometres or larger, known as PM10, and does not take into account
the smaller particulates that experts say are most harmful to human health.

The Beijing Environmental Bureau said it would provide hourly updates of
measurements of particles of 2.5 micrometres or less, known as PM2.5, ahead
of the Lunar New Year on January 23.

The mainland authorities’ move came after Hong Kong’s Environmental
Protection Department said roadside pollution levels in the southern
financial hub were the worst ever last year.

Measurements in the Central, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok districts indicated
that pollution levels were 10 times worse than in 2005 on more than one day
out of every five.

A recent ranking of cities by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in respect
of PM2.5 placed Hong Kong — which competes with Singapore as Asia’s banking
powerhouse — at 559th out of 566 cities.

That dire outcome sparked searching questions to Environment Secretary
Edward Yau in the legislative council last week.

Lawmaker Kam Nai-wai asked whether the government would “assume political
responsibility” for failing to live up to promises to update Hong Kong’s air
quality objectives (AQOs), set in 1987, to meet modern health standards.

Yau responded that PM2.5 samplers would be operational in all monitoring
stations in Hong Kong by the first quarter of 2012, and laid much of the
blame for the small-particle pollution on “regions outside Hong Kong”.

“The government is now working on the final proposal to update the AQOs for
submission to the Legislative Council for deliberation as soon as possible,”
he said.

Yau said clean-air measures had to be “generally supported by the
community”, a likely reference to public opposition to higher transport
costs and resistance from business owners to tighter environmental controls.

A report by Civic Action released Thursday said ageing diesel commercial
vehicles, LPG-powered taxis and minibuses were the main sources of pollution
in the city’s “street canyons” of office towers and apartment buildings.

Air quality is not only damaging residents’ health, it is also eroding the
city’s competitiveness as a regional centre for business and finance, it
said.

The report cited pollution-related questions over infrastructure projects
including the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau (HKZM) bridge and a planned third
runway at Hong Kong airport.

An official study last year found that the runway would have to operate at
less than half capacity if new air quality standards were implemented.

Surveys showed that “air pollution is driving those who form the base of
Hong Kong’s knowledge and finance-based economy — the wealthiest and best
educated — to leave,” it said.

“The challenges to the HKZM Bridge and the third runway represent a dramatic
escalation in the scale of the problem. The business community is beginning
to appreciate the seriousness of this threat,” it said.

Tsang’s seven-year rule, which is due to end in March, can be measured in
terms of the more than 7,200 smog-related deaths recorded since he took
power in 2005, Kilburn said.

The figures are backed up by the Hedley Environmental Index run by the
medical faculty at the University of Hong Kong.

“It’s a shockingly high number. What we are concerned about is the lack of
urgency,” he said Friday, when a pall of toxic airborne particles made it it
barely possible to see across the city’s Victoria Harbour.

The think-tank’s air quality “report card” said the government had
implemented various measures to control pollution, but these had been
ineffective in the absence of a coordinated clean-air policy.

“Without tight standards, polluting businesses in Hong Kong, especially
vehicle and vessel owners and operators, have been permitted to remain
unregulated for the last two decades,” it said.

– AFP/cc

Developing Lantau a delicate task

Jan 15th, 2012
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South China Morning Post – 15 Jan 2012

Hong Kong Disneyland is making great strides towards turning a profit, but it needs to substantially increase visitor numbers before that happens. With an eye on pushing attendance from last year’s record 5.9 million to 11 million by 2022, its strategy is to support and profit from developing tourism on Lantau Island. That is a wise course for the government majority-owned theme park to take, with the island already having a number of tourist draws, several more planned and huge potential for more. Whichever it partners and allies itself with, though, it has to ensure that projects are in line with the authorities’ well-stated policy of sensitively balancing development with protection of the natural environment.

Lantau is Hong Kong’s biggest island and among China’s most beautiful. It has breathtaking scenery, with soaring mountains, some of our best beaches, fast-flowing streams, and wetlands and woodlands teeming with flora and fauna. The views of the South China Sea from its peaks and shores are stunning. Tranquil monasteries, small farming and fishing communities and fine hiking trails boost its attractiveness.

Despite these assets, the government has had a haphazard approach to developing tourism. The potential afforded by beaches, wetlands and hiking and camping remains largely untapped. Instead, the focus has been drawn to Disneyland, the cable car to Ngong Ping Village and the nearby Po Lin Monastery and its giant Buddha statue, Tai O, and the AsiaWorld-Expo convention and exhibition centre. While a conservation and recreation strategy has been adopted towards the island’s south, a concrete sprawl is evolving along its north and east from Hong Kong International Airport, where a third runway is being pushed, to Tung Chung to Discovery Bay.

Every government with an environmental asset that has tourism potential has the same dilemma: how to balance development with preservation and conservation. Plans for the world’s largest incinerator on reclaimed land next to Shek Kwu Chau off south Lantau do not fit that approach. Lantau’s views will be blighted by the waste treatment facility and barges carrying up to 3,000 tonnes of garbage a day. The chance to draw tourists and develop high-standard resorts will be hampered, if not lost.

Disneyland, its future depending on millions of extra visitors, needs more attractions on Lantau to attain its potential. Allying itself with other tourism ventures and encouraging other projects makes good sense. But it, like the government, has to be wary – the reason Lantau is so appealing is because a large part remains unspoilt. Tourism development has to be structured, carefully thought through and sensitive to the need to preserve, conserve and be sustainable.

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