Lamma Gung,
thanks a lot for the pictures.

I am out of town till the end of August.

To those who are reading this thread, if you know someone who writes for the SCMP, please let them know about this. It's a complete disgrace. The farmer has been bullied. His crop is lost. Residents have to put up with this eyesore, which ,as expected, has turned into something worse than an eyesore.

We have done everything we could to stop the landfill, all relevant departments are aware of the situation.
More press coverage will certainly help. DSD claimed they would sue the landowner who deposited the waste. Why haven't they done it???

DSD owes everybdy an explanation. Their inaction is criminal.

And there's going to be a lot of stagnant pools of water later in the year so it would be worth playing up the mosquito breeding ground/dengue fever angle.

Just observed the digger loading up a couple of VV's with some of the rubble. They then proceeded to cart it up the hill in the direction of Tai Ping, final destination unknown.

This morning Mr. Fong and his gang were laying the big concrete pipes that have been sitting on his land for months.
Burying a natural stream under tonnes of construction waste cannot be legal.

I have just informed DSD. Let's see what lame excuse they come up with this time.

now they are covering the vacant lots on the other side of the path with construction waste. Yung Shue Long is rapidly turning into a dump.

Fences -- really, walls, around the former lily pond site, and
also putting up high fences on both sides of the path.

This all on "agricultural" land and the government sticks its head in its ass rather than confront the people responsible.

walls and fences are blocking the view, narrowing the path and making it very dangerous: VV's keep speeding and both cyclists and pedestrians are at constant risk.

....while our district councillor is concerned about the risk posed by parked bikes on the pier!

If you are concerned about the REAL risk, and dismayed at the ongoing fencing and dumping in Yung Shue Long, please write to the government Efficiency Unit,

tellme@1823.gov.hk

Some of you may have already seen the SCMP today. It reports the "plight" of a Yuen Long land owner who has been ordered to clear construction waste off her land. She claims that thugs put it there and she is powerless. In any event it shows that the Lands Department CAN take action if they want to.

Seems like all of the indigenous villagers are 'claiming their land' to build their houses even before they have had permission.

I take a path to Tai Wan To beach every morning. There is a dirt path from Wang Long to the beach, though the New Tai Wan To Vlg..

6 months ago someone was planting vegetables and plants. One day the VV's came in and just swamped everything with rubble. I'm sure the budding gardeners had no warning.

A couple of weeks ago people were planting stakes and rope across the dirt path. I mentioned to a lady that someone may trip up on the ropes and metal spikes everywhere. She said "This is all private land" so you can't walk here.

I pointed out that it wasn't 'private land'.. it was government land. They are leasing the land from the government to build. . And as they hadn't received permission to build yet, then maybe they should just keep the path free of obstruction, or someone may injure themselves. (I was very nice about it)

Are people allowed to 'claim their land' and do this, or do they have to wait until they have permission to build?

You can do just about anything on "agricultural land" except finally building a house.

They can dump construction waste on it and poison it, as they did to the lily pond and numerous other sites, obviously making building foundations, but he government defines this as "temporary storage" and shrugs off any responsibility to enforce the terms of the leases.

They might even get away with erecting buildings, but they certainly couldn't sell any without it being legalised, so there is that.

this is the reply i got from Lands Department a few days ago:

"We shall check if the land concerned is government land or private land. If the building materials are on the government land, we will take appropriate land control action. For your information, you may wish to note that most agricultural lands in Yung Shue Long Valley, Lamma Island are held under a Block Government Lease (“BGL”). As BGL does not contain any restrictions against storage / dumping of building materials, there is no breach for such and thus this office has no right of taking enforcement action under the lease."

The government lease allows them to do whatever they want on land that was initially leased for agricultural use. That's why, like many friends before me, i am leaving Lamma. The government is totally impotent against the Heung Yee Kuk bullies and it's too heartbreaking for me to see the demise of Lamma as a green and pleasant place to live. I don't want to live in a dump., i don't want to walk pass toilet bowls and construction waste every day.

And this is their latest reply (pretty hard to read!)

"As far as Lands Department is concerned, you may appreciate that we could only base on the Lease governs a private lot to take enforcement action against private lot owner(s). Further, you may wish that in the Melhado Case (1983), the High Court ruled that the user clauses in Block Crown Lease or now call Block Government Lease (BGL) were only ‘descriptive’, which meant that the use of agricultural land could no longer be effectively controlled through the BGL. The Melhado Case had led to extensive conversion of agricultural land into various natures, such as container yards and open storage sites yet such usages are not in contravene with the BGL. Thus, unless there is any contravention of the BGL, no action could be taken by this Office."

Since the Melhado case in 1983 the government has been sitting idle and watching the rape of the New Territories.

More construction coming on the "agricultural lease" of the former lily pond site.

There are 16 big concrete pipe sections stacked up there now, partly concealed behind high fences.

The same kind as they used to channel the YSL stream when they covered it over.

Obviously they're going to extend the area covered by construction waste either upstream or downstream, or both.

There's a reason all the old houses were built on hillsides in YSL.
Because the valley is swampland below sea level.
But fuck that, just dump enough crap there and build on top of it. Sell the houses in the dry season and walk away. A few years later YLF can demand the Drainage Dept spend more millions to try to stop the flooding.

Maybe they can build dykes and windmills.


.

Another sad day for Lamma.

We should all go out and take photo's of nature and it's trails, flora and fauna, etc.. (not the many dump sites), so that we can fondly look upon these photo's in future years, and smile wistfully for something that once was. But has now gone.

The dump sites are getting bigger. The VV's becoming more frequent and faster. The quality of life has diminished, the nature and sounds of a lovely island can only be fully appreciated early morning.

Yet the rents have doubled. What am I missing?

It's becoming ridiculous. So we can all say goodbye to yet another beautiful valley if this is allowed to continue.

Surely permission is required for work on this scale? Do they have it?

_________________
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.

And my question was, "Isn't there protection for watercourses in Hong Kong?" And I forget exactly what the answer was, but it seems that because of the lack of some sort of development plan or something like that, pertinent govt. departments are unable to enforce laws in this area with respect to the protection of agricultural land.

(Living Lamma can explain this)

_________________
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
----- Margaret Mead

No, see foreign body's post above.

The government brown noses the DAB and the Heung Yee Kuk., they won't think of challenging anything they do to the countryside.

They pretend that dumping tons of concrete waste on farmland and diversion of natural streams into pipes is "temporary storage". Than a few years later they reclassify the land as "deteriorated" and allow the building to commence.

Yes, but dumping waste is one thing. The pics above suggest major drainage work on the sort of scale that usually entails so-called public consultation. There must (surely!) be a point at which the authorities would step in and stop the bastards.

_________________
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.

You'd think so, but they didn't the last time, despite numerous complaints.

They really are just gutless.

The government doesn't protect streams. As a matter of fact DSD is the worst offender when it comes to turning streams into nullahs. If the stream runs through private land the owner can do whatever he wants with it. If he pollutes the water you can get EPD involved, but only if the water samples show serious chemical pollution.

When the lily pond was destroyed we looked at all angles to stop it, including the impact on amphibian life (the Romer's tree frog is a protected species!), we made a presentation at Legco, we looked at the Waste Disposal Ordinance (dumping on private land to circumvent it and avoid disposal charges)

We got nowhere. There are many loopholes in the legislation and no political will to close them.

We see a pleasant green valley and an important ecosystem, we appreciate natural beauty. The majority of indigenous villagers see only the dollar sign and act accordingly. They want to turn Yung Shue Long into another ShaPo and Wang Long. Then when the place becomes a toilet, they will have enough money to move elsewhere. Or just stay indoors, crank up the aircon and watch tv on their giant screens.

The EPD is just a waste of taxpayers' money.
I sent them pictures of a VV dumping rubble next to the waterworks building in Yung Shue Long, on land that was farmed till a few years ago. The VV's number plate is clearly visible. And this is their lame reply:

Dumping construction waste in Yung Shue Long valley, Lamma Island (Case Ref: 1-413699624)

"We inspected the location concerned on 12 April 2013. On spot, many C&D debris was found depositing at the private lot No. 40 in D.D.3 adjacent to the WSD Lamma depot. However, during the inspection, there was no construction work in the vicinity nor dumping activity on the spot. Violation of Waste Disposal Ordinance cannot be substantiated and therefore enforcement action cannot be taken by this office if the landowner permits the depositing of waste in his own place. We are checking if there is consent of the owner and would keep this in view."

Even when one of their Ordinances is blatantly violated, they refuse to take action. If the owner of the land gave consent, as he probably did, they can't act.
So, if you don't want to pay a fee to the government to dispose of construction waste in a regulated landfill, just find a friend on the island who gives consent and you can dump it for free on his land. Then he has the perfect excuse to seek permission to build on the degraded site at a later stage.

That's why Lamma is turning into a disaster zone. I have seen slums that are much nicer than many parts of Lamma.