The Northern Metropolis Development Strategy proposes land resumption of Deep Bay wetlands (including Nam Sang Wai) for conservation. However, it was announced last week that the Town Planning Appeal Board granted conditional approval of Nam Sang Wai development project (A/ YL-NSW/242) by a 3:2 majority.

Nam Sang Wai consists of a wide range of wetland habitats, including reedbeds, wet grasslands, active and abandoned fishponds. Such habitat diversity provides important roosting and foraging ground for various water bird species and is of high ecological value. The development project in Nam Sang Wai, once rejected by the Town Planning Board in 2017, proposes development of 28 blocks of residential building (19 to 25-storey). If the project goes ahead as planned, it will inflict permanent damage to the ecological integrity of the Deep Bay wetlands.

• The proposed site for high-rise residential development is within the Wetland Conservation Area (WCA), which is part of the core area for wetland conservation. The project would lead to a direct and permanent wetland loss of 10.4 hectares.
• The developer emphasized that there will be 400m buffer area for the Great Cormorant roosting sites. However, according to the record in 2018, part of the residential area was less than 100m away from the important night roosting site for Great Cormorant, and the breeding ground of endemic Hong Kong Bent-winged Firefly. As the development is located within the wetland core area, the buffer area claimed by the developer is simply unrealistic, and would inevitably obstruct the flight paths of birds and cause severe disturbance like light pollution on both roosting Great Cormorant and breeding Hong Kong Bent-winged Firefly.
• Not only would the 28 residential buildings (19-25 storeys) and 140 houses irreversibly destroy the natural landscape, but the population of 6,500 habitants to be introduced there would also disturb the surrounding habitats and wildlife.
• A new bridge will be built across Shan Pui River, connecting Nam Sang Wai and the Yuen Long Industrial Estate for easy access to Nam Sang Wai. However, such a crucial component of the development plan was not included within the application site boundary, and the ecological impacts of the proposed bridge were not adequately assessed.
• Apart from the Nam Sang Wai development and the approved Fung Lok Wai project, several planning applications of large scale residential developments are pending review. All these would have adverse cumulative impact on the ecological integrity of the Deep Bay area.

We are disappointed that the Appeal Board approved the high-rise residential development in such an ecologically sensitive area, and even agreed that the project could achieve “no-net-loss in wetland”, and that the developer's mitigation measures could compensate for all the ecological loss brought by the proposal. We urge the government to resume the wetlands in Deep Bay (including Nam Sang Wai and Lut Chau) as soon as possible, and not to break the foundation stone laid for Deep Bay wetland conservation in the past 30 years.