Lung Mei beach project doomed to fail, expert warns
Pollution and lack of waves in the area would turn beachgoers away, says marine ecologist
The man-made beach planned on the Tai Po shoreline is doomed to fail because of environmental factors, a marine ecology scholar says.
Professor Brian Morton said pollution of the Tolo Harbour and a lack of waves to keep the sand white would make the HK$200 million project at Lung Mei "time, effort and money spent for nothing".
Morton, who spent 33 years researching Hong Kong's marine environment before he retired in 2003, said he would "almost certainly advise against [the project]".
He was speaking as a coalition of green groups prepared to take their grievances about the project to the Legislative Council's complaints division after an estimated 3,000 people rallied against it outside the government headquarters on Sunday. Lawmakers had in July approved funding for the project.
An emeritus professor of the University of Hong Kong and a laureate of the United Nations Global 500 Forum, Morton was the first to call for marine conservation zones in Hong Kong.
He said he would have "severe reservations" about swimming anywhere in the Inner Tolo Harbour, where the beach is planned, because of health-threatening pollution.
Morton also said that wave action that had "aerating effects" on sand and turned it varying degrees of white might not happen at Lung Mei.
