Beach Water Quality
At the east mouth of Three Fathoms Cove (Kei Ling Ha Hoi) and adjacent to Sai Kung West Country Park, lies Sham Chung, a beautiful wetland area. Once a thriving farming community, it had by the 1980s become a "ghost town." Only on weekends and holidays when the shop opens to serve the numerous hikers and nature lovers does it now come to life.
When the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) announced its Nature Conservation Policy in November 2004 they listed Sham Chung as one of their 12 priority ecological sites for enhanced conservation.
Subsidiaries of Sun Hung Kai Properties have purchased (or agreed to purchase) land from most of the indigenous villagers and owns 80 percent of the private land in Sham Chung. Plans to develop a golf course in the valley were halted following strong protests from environmental groups and a few indigenous villagers.
A much more ambitious plan for a spa resort area (including helicopter pad, holiday camp, resort-style hotel, houses, picnic area, private club, church and recreation and sport centres) was discussed at the 14 July meeting of the Town Planning Board (TPB).
The indigenous villagers (who hope to finally see some economic benefit from their abandoned land) and developers faced opposition from local groups who care about conservation (including the Sai Kung Association) and the EPD.
The EPD’s written objection tabled at the meeting stated that “the proposed scale of development immediately next to the ecologically important stream at Sham Chung would bring undesirable impacts during both construction and operation stages of the proposed resort.” Conservationists noted that the 32.4 hectares of land is home to rare or protected birds, dragonflies, butterflies and fish and that such large scale development would endanger the fragile ecosystem.
Nature lovers were pleased that the area was spared (until the next round). However, the planning department’s draft plan still allows for a large part of the land (some of it wetland) to be used for village house development and it’s possible that the golf course is back on the drawing board. Stay tuned!