HONG KONG: A distinguished environmental group in Hong Kong mentioned on Friday (Aug 1) it was disbanding after a long time of campaigning to guard Victoria Harbour from large-scale reclamation, citing a brand new regulation that weakens oversight of such tasks.
The Society for Safety of the Harbour (SPH) mentioned current amendments to land reclamation guidelines had consolidated an excessive amount of energy within the palms of presidency decision-makers, violating key public regulation rules. Regardless of submitting authorized recommendation to authorities, the group mentioned it obtained no response earlier than the invoice handed in Could.
SPH’s closure marks the most recent retreat of civil society in Hong Kong because the imposition of a sweeping nationwide safety regulation in 2020, which has led to the arrest or exile of a whole lot of democracy activists and the closure of quite a few organisations.
Secretary for Improvement Bernadette Linn advised the pro-Beijing Wen Wei Po in June that the federal government had encountered “mushy resistance” a time period usually used to explain ideological dissent, throughout the regulation’s modification course of. She cited a social media publish by SPH warning that reclamation plans posed dangers to the harbour.
The Improvement Bureau on Friday acknowledged SPH’s previous contributions to harbourfront affairs however defended the brand new regulation, saying it had “strengthened laws on large-scale reclamation” in Victoria Harbour.
In its farewell message, SPH mentioned it hoped the harbourfront would ultimately be declared a “Nationwide Treasure of China” and safeguarded “for the good thing about the current and future generations.”
