Green groups on Tuesday urged the government to make changes to its San Tin Technopole development project before it causes "irreversible damage" to the ecosystem in Deep Bay.

About half of the 627-hectare proposed site is slated for innovation and technology development. About 90 hectares of fish ponds will be reclaimed and a conservation park will be created in the area.

But nine green groups, including the Conservancy Association, Hong Kong Bird Watching Society and Green Power, say the administration unveiled its development plan before an ecological study was complete and there was no new environmental impact assessment even after the scope of the project almost doubled in size compared to the initial plan announced in 2021.

The director of Green Power, Cheng Luk-ki, said the old assessment could seriously underestimate the project's ecological impacts.

The groups warned that the technopole plan could destroy conservation efforts made over the past three decades in the Deep Bay Wetlands, and urged the government to amend its plans before it's too late.

The government earlier said that the wetland conservation park system to be developed would make up for the loss in ecological functions in the area.