An advisory council on Monday conditionally approved the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the San Tin Technopole project, despite heavy criticism.

Green groups had last week called the report the worst wetland assessment since EIA regulations came into place in 1998.

The Advisory Council on the Environment approved the EIA at a meeting, but it listed eight conditions, including the submission of a habitat creation and management plan (HCMP) to the Environmental Protection Department nine months before pond filling works begin.

Other conditions included setting up wildlife corridors with a diameter of at least ten metres wide, submitting a plan on enhancing wetlands in Mai Po, and setting up an environmental committee to monitor the implementation of ecological mitigation measures.

Terence Tsang, the department's assistant director, said authorities will ensure the eight conditions will be met throughout the development of the tech hub.

"There is a very stringent mechanism to review that submission. Also, if in case the effectiveness of the measures recommended in the HCMP was found to not achieve the expected results... there is some kind of monitoring mechanism," he told reporters.

Green groups said the EIA had missed two species of breeding birds and also did not share the actual number of black-faced spoonbills counted in the survey.

Additionally, they said that the assessment had violated at least 35 statutory requirements and omitted crucial data points.

They also said the report should be resubmitted, as the area for the San Tin Technopole project had been expanded.

But council chairman John Chai said that that would not be necessary as the assessment already covered issues like ecology, fishponds and wetlands.

"Despite that there is a difference in the area, the coverage of the development, the environmental issues that need to be studied have not changed... So in other words, it's the same kind of study," Chai said.

Responding to the development, environmental groups said they were highly disappointed by the decision, stressing that the San Tin Technopole project will cause irreversible damage to wetlands.

In a statement, they said the conditions laid out by the department did not specifically address the deficiencies in the San Tin EIA report, which they regarded as "invalid, incomplete, unscientific, and unreliable".

Construction work for the tech hub will begin late this year.
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Last updated: 2024-04-22 HKT 21:31