Group urges gov’t to clarify Coloane’s future

The non-governmental organization (NGO) Green Future 綠色未來 presented a petition yesterday which urged the government to clarify and disclose more information about future urban planning of Coloane island, a member of the NGO and one of the petitioners, Joe Chan, told the Times. Among its various points, the petition addresses the demolition of the old Lai Chi Vun shipyards. The group seeks  further information pertaining to the entire area of Coloane, which they say is “the last green area of the territory.”

“We want to clarify the mysterious development plan [for the area] because nobody knows exactly what is going on,” Chan said. “We are not focusing only on that area [Lai Chi Vun] but in all Coloane and its future development, because Lai Chi Vun is an important breaking point [barrier] for the urbanization of that area.”

The Green Future promoters expressed concerns that there might be interests that are driving the government’s fast demolition of the old shipyards, which began last week without much progress on the production of relevant legislature that clarifies what can or  can not be done in the area.

“There are a lot of construction sites [around] and a lot of projects waiting for the government [to make a decision] and there is no evidence at this point that we can preserve these lands in the future,” Chan said, hinting that it appeared as though someone was pushing to accelerate the urbanization of Coloane.

With the petition submitted to the government, the group says that it’s trying to “persuade the government to give us more information and clarify their intensions for the future,” as well as revealing “the schedule for the conclusion of the urban plan for that area.”

“They are taking so long to a produce a plan but they were so fast to put down the old [ship] factories,” Chan said.

Regarding the organization’s expectations for the petition, Chan said: “It is not compulsory for them to reply to us but I think that a government that is responsible and wants to cooperate and cares about its people feelings should play a more active role in releasing information instead of just ‘pushing you away’. We have a legal right to know what is happening in our city.”

Concerns over the old shipyards have arisen after the decision of the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau to dismantle some of the ship factories for safety reasons, leading several groups to protest the action. In some cases groups started online petitions to halt the planned demolition of around a dozen shipyards in Coloane’s Lai Chi Vun district.

These groups argue that the shipyards should be preserved for their intrinsic historic and heritage value.