No Road Out to Ma Lam Wat
Missed opportunity for dialogue
[see previous story for background]
It’s official! The Sai Kung District Office has announced that the proposal to build a “van track and foot path” out to Ma Lam Wat on Pak Sha Wan Peninsula through Ma On Shan Country Park and an area designated “Site of Special Scientific Interest” has been quashed. There were many objections (over 100 of them) from those who feared that this single lane road could be the first step towards development of this area.
Explore feels strongly that this is a missed opportunity. Those who objected had real cause for concern and stated their reasons for objecting to the proposal with passion. However, looking at it from the other side, those who requested the road (apparently for safety as well as development reasons) see objectors as totally uninterested in the needs and interests of the indigenous villagers.
This “we” and “they” – black and white – situation is one which, in the long run, no one wins. Judging by similar tense situations elsewhere in SK, the same proposal will be floated a few years hence in hopes that it will pass without anyone’s notice.
Should the two sides not have been brought together to listen to each others’ viewpoints and attempt some form of compromise? Could the District Office not have facilitated dialogue between the two in an attempt to reach a sustainable solution?
The same scenario is played over and over again in villages across the district – surely it’s about time for all stakeholders to work together and effect change for the sake of the sustainability of Sai Kung?