Reclamation Project
The British Hong Kong government has started reclamation projects to expand the land in the early years, resulting in the continuous shrinking of the harbor area. Today, many Hong Kong people have begun to pay attention to the reclamation plan of Victoria Harbor and have launched many campaigns to protect Victoria Harbor. Among them, the Harbor Protection Association is the most well-known. The Association launched a signature campaign in 1996 and successfully promoted the Harbor Protection Ordinance with the support of 170,000 signatures from citizens. It was later enacted into law at the last meeting of the Legislative Council in June 1997.
After the handover of Hong Kong’s sovereignty, opposition to reclamation became increasingly strong. In 1998, due to the opposition of several environmental groups led by the Harbor Protection Association, the government was forced to suspend and re-examine the reclamation projects outside Kai Tak and Tamar. Subsequently, some groups and members of the public initiated legal proceedings against the government's reclamation projects in Wan Chai North and Central. Until 2004, the Court of Final Appeal ruled against the government in relation to the government's Wan Chai North reclamation project; however, in 2005, the government's reclamation project in Central won the case against the reclamation project. Although the government won the case on the Central Reclamation Project, in order to avoid further litigation, the government also established an advisory Harbor Construction Committee to listen to public opinions on the reclamation project. Today's Victoria Harbor has been significantly reduced in area after numerous reclamations, but traffic has become increasingly busy. As a result, the waves are larger than in the past, and smaller ships will become unstable when sailing on the sea.
Landscape Protection
The two sides of Victoria Harbor are famous tourist spots in Hong Kong. Many tourists go to Victoria Peak to overlook the landscape of Victoria Harbor and Kowloon Peninsula. However, real estate developers have continued to New high-rise buildings have been built in the waterfront areas on both sides of Victoria Harbor. Some of the high-rise buildings have even blocked the ridgeline of Lion Rock, damaging the seaside landscape and the ridgelines on both sides of the strait, and preventing tourists from enjoying the scenery on both sides of Victoria Harbor.
Tan Kaibang, chairman of the environmental group Environmental Touch, pointed out that although Hong Kong has legislated to protect Victoria Harbor in terms of reclamation, there is no legislation regulating landscape protection, and real estate developers can still build high-rise buildings on both sides of Victoria Harbour. The group's survey found that Hong Kong people generally agree that the government should introduce legislation to protect the landscape of Victoria Harbor.
Water quality pollution
The water quality of Victoria Harbor has been neglected for many years. Among them, the impact of Hong Kong's industrial take-off in the 1970s on water quality pollution. At that time, the government still had no measures to monitor the sewage discharged from factories. Hong Kong discharged about 1.5 million cubic meters of filtered sewage into Victoria Harbor every day. A lot of waste containing toxic substances and heavy metals was discharged directly into Victoria Harbor without treatment. Deposited in the sludge on the seabed of Victoria Harbour.
Ill-scrupulous people littering the sea, oil stains leaking from ships and other problems are all sources of declining water quality. In addition, household cleaning products full of chemicals were discharged into Victoria Harbor through toilets. Especially during the SARS incident, citizens used a large amount of bleach, which resulted in high ammonia levels in seawater.
Multiple reclamations are also a factor that indirectly affects water quality: reclamation projects straighten the coastline, creating some dead spots with low seawater flow, and the narrowing of the harbor also weakens the scouring ability of the tide. , all of which caused the accumulation of garbage and odor in Victoria Harbor. According to water quality tests, it has been confirmed that the bacteria content of E. coli in seawater is relatively high and the oxygen content is relatively low, which can easily suffocate fish and other marine life. Some members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council even suggested that if the reclamation project continues in Victoria Harbor, it will definitely turn into the Victoria Canal in the future.
The government then implemented a planned sewage collection and treatment system, and launched the "Harbor Purification Scheme" and "Harbor Sewage Treatment Scheme" (formerly known as "Strategic Sewage Discharge Plan" or "Strategic Sewage Discharge Plan") to Address the issue of declining water quality. According to data monitored by the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department, although the water pollution situation has improved slightly, the water quality of Victoria Harbor still needs to continue to be improved. On the one hand, the government has also produced many TV commercials to appeal to the public not to throw garbage into the harbor. On the other hand, there are departments responsible for picking up garbage in the sea and conducting regular surveys on water quality. In the long term, the government has considered using pipes to discharge sewage into the high seas to reduce water pollution in Victoria Harbour.
There used to be a lot of fishing activities in Victoria Harbor, but due to water pollution, many fish and other marine life suffocated to death.
Although there are still many people fishing on both sides of Victoria Harbor, the seafood in Victoria Harbor is not suitable for consumption because of the possibility of inhaling harmful substances.
On the other hand, due to the serious pollution problem in Victoria Harbor, which has reduced visibility, and the heavy traffic on the sea, which makes it difficult to close the harbor, the cross-sea swimming activity that was popular in Victoria Harbor in the past has disappeared. "Harbor Treatment Scheme" - a huge project costing more than HK$20 billion
The "Harbor Treatment Scheme" is a comprehensive sewage collection and treatment project surrounding the areas on both sides of Victoria Harbor. This world-class sewage treatment infrastructure project is carried out in phases. By the end of 2007, the construction cost invested by the Hong Kong government had reached HK$8.2 billion. Significant progress has been made towards the completion of the first phase of the project, and the increasingly serious seawater pollution caused by sewage discharge into Victoria Harbor has been brought under control. In fact, as early as the end of 2001, through the full commissioning of the first phase of the Harbor Purification Scheme, the water quality of Victoria Harbor has been greatly improved, and the bacterial count in the eastern waters of Victoria Harbor has been significantly reduced by 90%.
The first phase of the Harbor Treatment Scheme involves the construction of a 23.6-km deep tunnel system to transport 1.4 million cubic meters of sewage from Kowloon and northeastern Hong Kong Island to Stonecutters every day. Chemically enhanced primary sewage treatment plants in Asia. The Stonecutters Island Sewage Treatment Works was put into service in 1997 and is now capable of treating 75% of the sewage discharged into the harbour.
The goal of the second phase of the "Harbor Purification Scheme" is to restore Victoria Harbor to its natural and fresh appearance. The proposed second phase of the project will be carried out in two phases. The first costing HK$20 billion will provide additional facilities to transport sewage from the harbor area to Stonecutters Island for chemical treatment and disinfection. The second phase of the plan will also Including biological sewage treatment, the entire project has been implemented since 2008
Hong Kong Harbor Day
Since 2005, many organizations have co-organized Hong Kong Harbor Day (Hong Kong Harbor Day), hoping to arouse The public pays attention to the problems of Victoria Harbor, cultivates public awareness of the harbor, and promotes appreciation and care for this city's precious assets.