hong kong zhuhai bridge

HKZM bridge pollution

Here's a letter (by me) to the editor of the South China Morning Post; published on 8 December 2005.

I was interested to see that the map of air quality in the Pearl River Delta on 30 November (SCMP, 1 Dec) showed a zone of relatively clean air over Zhuhai and Macau. This presumably results from Zhuhai and Macau having little industry.

As and when the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge is built, this situation could change dramatically. The bridge is largely aimed at spurring development in Zhuhai - perhaps so it can mirror places along the east shore of the Pearl River Delta. With increased development will come increased air pollution, impacting not only Zhuhai and Macau but also adding to air pollution in Hong Kong.

Given that air pollution in the Pearl River Delta Region is already severe - as I write this, the sky is clear yet the air is grey with smog - perhaps bridge proponents could explain just why Hong Kong should contribute to the project, and so help push our air pollution from very bad to even worse.

Submitted by DocMartin on 9 December 2005 - 4:35am

Zhuhai to Hong Kong bridge

THE ZHUHAI BRIDGE: A TEST OF OUR COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - AND TO CONTROLLING AIR POLUTION

[Article by Bill Barron and Paul Zimmerman; appeared in 30 October 2004 edition of the South China Morning Post, and used with kind permission of the authors.]

To move toward sustainable development in practice, decisions must be evaluated and modified in light of its principles. For the planned Zhuhai bridge, the governments involved should evaluate the environmental sustainability of accelerating development of the western Pearl River Delta (PRD) and only allow the bridge to go ahead when we have identified air pollution offsets elsewhere.

More than a road link between Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau, the bridge is intended to open up the western PRD to industrial expansion and to entice cargo shipments via Hong Kong.  While, the growth of Hong Kong’s economic hinterland is appealing, we need to ask ‘how can the added development be made environmentally sustainable’.

The PRD’s air quality is bad and getting worse. Even by our own arguably rather lax, air quality objectives, we now breathe pervasively unhealthy air. For more and more of the year the air shed we share with the rest of the PRD is well beyond its capacity to absorb current pollutant loads.  

As bridge proponents have argued, there is an approximate 3 hour limit for the driving time from Hong Kong that local entrepreneurs use for locating the factories they finance or manage. In the eastern Delta, Dongguan is about at this limit.  A bridge to Zhuhai would open up similar opportunities for development to Zhongshan, and with new highways to Shunde or beyond.

 

Submitted by DocMartin on 1 November 2004 - 6:55pm
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