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We talked about the HKD$ 500 billion reclamation project yesterday. In which the project aims to build a 1,700 hectares artificial island in Hong Kong. How big is it? It is around 1/64 of Hong Kong. Special thanks to @earthfromsatellites for their amazing satellite photo of Hong Kong, so that you can have a brief idea on how big the artificial island will be.
How would you use HKD$ 500 billion (HKD$ 500,000,000,000 - I counted a few times, the number of “0” should be correct) (USD$ 64 billion)? To solve the problem of housing and population growth, our Chief Executive - Carrie Lam, has introduced a HKD$ 500 billion project, which is to build a 1,700 hectares artificial island (near Lantau) in Hong Kong. How big is it? It is around 1/64 of Hong Kong. The reclamation is expected to be completed after 14 years, which is large enough to house 1.1 million people. To make the whole development more accessible, the project also includes a new transport network connecting the artificial island with the Kowloon peninsula and Hong Kong. It means the project costs much more than HKD$500 billion! It is expected to use much of Hong Kong’s financial reserves, which is the taxpayers’ money.
There are so many other social problems in Hong Kong. For example, citizens need to pay HKD$180 for Accident and emergency service in public hospitals and wait for more than 8 hours to meet the doctor. “FULL” cannot be used to describe the situation in Hong Kong’s hospitals. Bed occupancy rates in medical wards have been as high as 130%. Temporary beds have to be laid out in hospital corridors. When I was young, the Accident and Emergency Services are free, and we just had to wait for 3 hours to consult the doctor. Shall the government allocate enough resources to solve the problem of health care first?
Lantau is a lovely island, where you can find a great diversity of plants and animals. Tourists and locals visit Lantau for the big Buddha, the countryside and the small fishing village (Tai O), where they go out to watch the Chinese white dolphins. The development of the third airport runway and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge have already led to a great drop in the number of Chinese white dolphins in the Hong Kong water (from 188 recorded dolphins in 2003 to 47 dolphins in 2017). I am sure the reclamation project will further worsen the problem. Development and conservation, which one is more important?
Yes, the housing problem needs to be solved. There are many other ways suggested by different local groups and organisations and reclamation is one of the most expensive choices of all. This project takes 14 years to complete so as to solve the housing problem. What about the housing problem in these 14 years? Should we just limit the number of immigrants coming to Hong Kong every year if Hong Kong does not have this capacity (There are at least 50 thousands migrants moving to Hong Kong every year since 1997.) Locals are living in sub-divided flat, should the living standard of the citizens be considered and solved first? Should the financial reserves be used to solve more urgent social problems? Should we sacrifice the earth’s health?
What do you think about this project? Let us know your thought.
