For almost half a century, Kwok Hoi-yin’s modest house on Hong Kong’s border with mainland China was surrounded by countless fish ponds and green fields, forming the modern high-rises of the megacity Shenzhen to the north.
In recent years his village has shrunk, eaten away by roads and bridges, as the government claims land for cross-border infrastructure and its Northern Metropolis project, an ambitious plan to urbanize the border area that has gone ahead despite concerns from locals and environmentalists.
The rural idyll of Kwok, near the city’s largest and most important wetland, is long gone.
Instead, the view from his window is a gray stone wall, as an army of mosquitoes rises from the dead water left beneath his hut.
“To put it politely, we sacrifice ourselves for the greater good, but to put it less politely, we have been cut off piece by piece,” Kwok, 69, told AFP.
His 100-year-old village, Ha Wan Tsuen, could now be completely wiped out.
In September, the government approved a plan to create a huge new technology zone that will eventually swallow it up.
“We hope that they will not demolish our village – that is our most sincere but also most impossible wish,” said Kwok, who served as the elected head of Ha Wan Tsuen for 10 years.
“Because it is impossible for us to resist the government – it would be like a praying mantis trying to stop a chariot.”
– 90 percent opposition –
The planned technology zone, commonly known as the San Tin Technopole, is the icing on the cake of the northern metropolis.
According to the government, it will be the “core of industrial development”, creating a third of the promised 500,000 new jobs in the Metropolis.
The broader project – which aims to deepen integration with mainland China – will transform 30,000 hectares of land along the border, about a third of Hong Kong’s territory.
The Metropolis will house 2.5 million people, the government says.
But those who already call the area home, like Kwok, had little opportunity to bring their concerns about development directly to the government.
The last chance for ordinary people to speak out was a four-day hearing held by the City Planning Council in the summer.
A two-month consultation period prior to the hearing had resulted in a 90 percent opposition rate from around 1,600 submissions, but the board still gave the project the green light.
No evacuation date has been set for Ha Wan Tsuen yet, nor is there any compensation.
The government has also dismissed concerns about the project’s environmental impact.
The Technopole will advance against a large protected wetland area, which has been recognized by UNESCO since 1995.
The area surrounding these wetlands – approximately 2,600 hectares of fishponds, rivers and swamps – was designated a conservation and buffer zone by the Hong Kong government to limit development and maintain a complete ecosystem.
– ‘Wetland damage’ –
The Technopole will take over 240 hectares of these zones, the government has admitted.
“In the past 30 years, Hong Kong has never had a development plan that would cause damage to wetlands on such a scale,” Wong Suet-mei, conservation officer of the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, told AFP.
The government says most of the wetlands that will be affected have already been changed beyond recognition.
It says it will set up a wetland nature park as “compensation”, along with other measures such as maintaining a 300-metre flight path for birds.
“Based on the previous experiences with ecological compensation in other development projects, we are confident that the number of birds will remain at current levels or even increase,” the Development Agency told AFP.
Chan Kwok-sun, an aqua farmer whose nearly 40-year-old ponds will be filled in for the Technopole, remained doubtful.
“No one can farm fish if the ponds are occupied, no birds will come if there are no fish left for them,” Chan told AFP.
However, the 74-year-old farmer said he welcomed the government’s development plan as he had witnessed Shenzhen’s rise from “pure darkness like in primitive times” to “a mountain of skyscrapers”.
However, he said he would remain in his ponds until the last possible day.
“I live an unfettered life here,” Chan said. “It’s hard to find it elsewhere.”
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