Hong Kong authorities have confiscated batches of Japanese seafood that were suspected of being imported from areas near Fukushima, following an indefinite ban on aquatic products from parts of Japan two months ago.

The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) said in a statement on Monday that it discovered a pack of chilled scallops suspected to have been harvested and manufactured in Miyagi Prefecture, and two seaweed products suspected to have been processed in Tokyo and Ibaraki Prefecture, while inspecting Japanese imports.

The CFS, which is under the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, said it would continue to investigate and inform Japanese authorities of the suspected breaches.

“Prosecution will be instituted against the importers concerned should there be sufficient evidence,” a spokesperson for the CFS said in the English statement.

Hong Kong implemented an import ban on seafood from 10 Japanese prefectures in late August, after Japan began releasing treated wastewater from a nuclear plant in Fukushima that was damaged by an earthquake-triggered tsunami in 2011.

The restrictions, which bar all aquatic products “harvested, manufactured, processed, or packed” in Tokyo, Fukushima, Chiba, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Gunma, Miyagi, Niigata, Nagano, and Saitama, expanded on existing limitations introduced after the tsunami.

See also: Restaurateurs bite their tongues over Hong Kong’s curbs on Japanese seafood, as scholars say politics at play

Authorities now conduct radiation inspections on all Japanese seafood imports every day.

Tse Chin-wan, Secretary for Environment and Ecology, told lawmakers at a meeting last Tuesday that the city had invested nearly HK$10 million on the radiation checks thus far, including HK$6 million for radiation inspection equipment and HK$3.8 million on manpower.

Earlier this month, Tse also said that the city had no plans to lift the import bans in the immediate future.

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said in July that Japan’s move was in line with international standards, while the plant operator also said the radioactivity levels of samples were well within safe limits.

‘Satisfactory results’

Japan began its second phase of releasing the treated wastewater in early October, which will continue until next Monday.

As of Monday, CFS has tested the radiation level of 8,747 Japanese food import samples since August 24, when Japan began discharging the wastewater. All inspections have returned “satisfactory results.”

In the same period, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department tested 2,606 samples from local fish culture zones and wholesale markets. All testing results were “satisfactory,” the department said.

The Hong Kong Observatory has also increased the frequency of monitoring water radiation levels since July 2023. As of Monday, no anomaly has been detected.

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Hong Kong, long plagued by sky-high property prices, was judged the world’s least affordable housing market for the 13th consecutive year this March. Yet a Yau Tong site which could accommodate thousands of homes has been lying idle for almost three decades.

Big developers and the government have repeatedly failed to agree on a land premium which landowners must pay before construction. With the developers currently hit by a 14-year high in interest rates and a property market slump, some experts say the site should be partially rezoned for public, rather than private, housing.

One developer has managed to sell all of its units on a small portion of the Yau Tong waterfront, but only after price cuts to levels last seen seven years ago.

Flats at Coast Line II were sold in August at an average of 15 per cent below the market rate -prices equivalent to the cost of a government-subsidised apartment. The cheapest flat was a studio apartment measuring 210 square feet, offered for HK$2.9 million, or HK$13,810 per sq ft – an 18 per cent reduction on the market rate.

The private homes, which have yet to be completed, are among the first of a proposed 12,000 flats scheduled to be built under a large-scale development project just a short walk downhill from Yau Tong’s mainly working-class neighbourhood.

Most of the seaview site spanning just under 14 hectares – made up of Yau Tong Bay and an adjacent industrial area – has been left idle for close to three decades. With the city’s housing market in a rut, it seems the wait will last even longer.

30 years idle

The Coast Line properties have been developed by CK Asset, the flagship developer of Hong Kong’s richest man – Li Ka-shing – and are part of a proposed large-scale private development project in the Yau Tong Industrial Area. It was once known as the “the ulcer of Victoria Harbour” for its heavy pollution before the government eventually rezoned it for residential and comprehensive development in 1998.

The adjacent Yau Tong Bay was originally part of the industrial estate and populated with shipyards and sawmills in the 1950s. The U-shaped plot, created by reclamation, was rezoned for comprehensive development in 1993 when the colonial government was still in power.

To Chan Kim-ching of development policy think-tank Liber Research Community, the Yau Tong “privatopia” illustrates the problem with private land development in Hong Kong.

For years, real estate oligarchs have been accused of hoarding existing land resources in the city. Developers are currently sitting on more than 1,000 hectares of agricultural land alone – not to mention urban land resources such as the Yau Tong plot. No taxes are imposed on land hoarding in Hong Kong.

Echoing Beijing’s characterisation of Hong Kong’s housing crisis as a “deep-rooted problem,” the Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office (HKMAO) Xia Baolong has said he hoped the city would eradicate its infamous subdivided flats and cage homes by 2049.

“This reflects another side of Hong Kong’s land problem,” Chan said. “People always say there’s no land in Hong Kong, but the Yau Tong plot has been left idle for 20, 30 years.”

Land premiums

By the time construction for the Coast Line flats finishes in late 2025, less than a tenth of the 12,000 flats will be complete. Chan said private developers’ unwillingness to pay hefty land premiums was to blame.

In an interview with HKFP, the researcher said developers had repeatedly rejected land premium offers set by the Lands Department.

Henderson Land Development’s executive director Augustine Wong told reporters last month that the consortium in charge of the Yau Tong Bay project – consisting of Henderson, Sun Hung Kai Properties, New World Development, Hang Lung Properties, China State Construction, and Wheelock Properties – had refused to accept the latest deal.

The HK$24.5 billion premium was calculated at an average of HK$6,000 per square foot for the project’s 4.01 million square feet of buildable gross floor area.

Chan said the developers were appealing to the government to reduce the figure because the property market was falling faster than the premium. The consortium had previously turned down another offer in March 2021, also citing exorbitant costs.

The head of the Real Estate Developers Association (REDA) Stewart Leung has said in an interview with the Hong Kong Economic Journal that “there has never been a redevelopment so repetitive” and that the developers in the consortium each had their own interests to consider.

Norey Tsang, an assistant associate director at Midland Realty, said developers did not have hopes of making a big profit at Yau Tong and wanted merely to reduce the premium by around 20-30 per cent, to a level commensurate with the prices of the finished flats.

New World Development’s net gearing ratio – a metric of how much of a developer’s operations are funded by debt – stands at 46.9 per cent, while Henderson’s was 24 per cent, according to their latest interim financial reports. And with interest rates at a 14-year high, developers are wary, Tsang told HKFP in a phone interview.

“There’s no pressing need for them to take that [land premium] price,” he said. “They can afford to slow down the pace of development.”

Louis Loong, lawmaker for the real estate sector who is also secretary general of the developers association, declined to speak with HKFP, with his assistant saying he had no comment on matters regarding the Yau Tong development.

Gov’t intervention and market forces

The decades-long wait should have been enough to dispel the commonly-held belief that private developers are more efficient than the government, said Chan of Liber Research, arguing that the government’s “blind faith” in market forces had significant implications for future private development initiatives.

That would include development projects on proposed artificial islands to be created east of Lantau and envisaged as the city’s third business district, after Central on Hong Kong island and Kai Tak in Kowloon. Kai Tak was hit the hardest when Midland Realty recorded a cumulative 20,513 unsold flats in August.

That figure has been on the rise for months, with Centaline Property reporting 19,085 unsold flats as of the second quarter of 2023.

Chan said the idle Yau Tong plot could have been put to better use as a site for transitional housing for residents waiting for a public housing flat, or for flats under the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) – the government’s subsidised-sale housing programme.

Flats under the scheme are considered public housing, as are subsidised flats built by private developers introduced under a new pilot scheme that the government says could help kickstart development on existing land.

In 2018, the government set a 10-year target to bring the proportion of public housing up to 70 per cent, with the remaining 30 per cent for private housing. That has become a holdover policy goal for Chief Executive John Lee’s administration.

Chan said zoning half of Yau Tong Bay as HOS flats would create a “sense of urgency” and speed up private development. “They [developers] will realise that they might lose their hold on the development project if the delays persist,” Chan said. “Why can’t the government take the lead and do what this city needs the most, which is to build public housing or subsidised flats?”

But rezoning the land at the Yau Tong waterfront would “change the rules of the game,” said Cody Chow, another researcher at Liber. “It would only be a last resort for the government.” A land hoarding tax, he added, would similarly be out of the question.

Ng Mee-kam, director of Urban Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the government could take a more proactive role in better utilising land resources, if it chose to do so. “They can rezone the land. They can ask [the Urban Renewal Authority] to work on it, and they can initiate a public-private partnership,” she told HKFP.

Yau Tong West district councillor Lui Tung-hai, meanwhile, said the Yau Tong Bay project had been stuck in the pipeline for too long. “Drawing out the development doesn’t do any favours for residents,” he said.

Lui said residents and the council were both largely supportive of the development plan, but also hoped that there would be height and density limitations in place to ensure that the sea view was still visible to other residents.

While he supported the government’s push for more public housing, Lui had no hopes for government flats on the the harbourfront site. “Most of Kwun Tong district is public housing anyway,” he said.

Other than proposed major developments off Lantau and in the New Territories, site rezoning was listed as one of the methods for increasing housing supply in Lee’s maiden policy address last year. He also cited New Development Areas, brownfield and factory estate development, and major infrastructure projects.

In a reply to HKFP, the Development Bureau said zoning the Yau Tong sites for private development would “maximise development potential” to meet development needs.

“While the Government may not have control over the pace of these market-led redevelopment projects and the original use at these sites continues to exist before redevelopment, we consider this as a necessary process of urban renewal to replace old with new,” a spokesperson for the bureau said.

Homes or investments?

Midland’s Tsang, however, said building government flats at Yau Tong Bay would only cause the investment value of the area to fall, and negatively impact developers’ enthusiasm. He compared Liber’s suggestion to the situation at Kai Tak, where home prices plunged after private residents voiced concerns about a short-term public housing initiative that would block their sea views.

Even the current zoning plan could jeopardise property values. The Planning Department acknowledges that “interface problems” may arise while Yau Tong Bay is transformed into a residential area.

Chow said the area’s “Residential (Group E)” zoning bans “new industrial developments” but allows existing industrial buildings to remain until they are replaced by high-rise apartment complexes. This would make for “incompatible” land use over the course of Yau Tong Bay’s gradual transformation into a private housing enclave.

Right next to the Coast Line II complex, just several feet away from the lower floors, are two concrete batching plants that remain operational even though operator China Concrete Company faces 26 prosecutions from the Environmental Protection Department (EPD).

The operator has been refused licence renewals for both plants on several occasions since April 2021 for failing to limit air pollution, and the High Court this January rejected a legal bid to challenge the government’s decision. Just last month, the city’s Ombudsman found that the EPD had properly fulfilled its duties “from an administrative perspective.”

Ailing property market

Suggestions that stamp duty may be cut, a decade after it was increased to curb a property market bubble at the time, have fuelled speculation that home sales and prices could rebound.

As of October 11, after finance minister Paul Chan hinted last month that the measures would be scaled back, Henderson shares had surged 5.8 per cent to HK$21, Sun Hung Kai had risen 7.4 per cent to HK$85.25, and New World 3.9 per cent to HK$15.06. Yet it could be years before developers feel the tangible effects of relaxing what were once dubbed the “spicy measures.”

Meanwhile, disappointing land sales indicate that developers are still cautious. Only two of the 18 plots earmarked for sale in the current fiscal year have been sold so far, raising HK$10 billion in premiums.

Originally, the government hoped to raise HK$85 billion via the programme by the end of the fiscal year in March 2024, which would equate to some 13 per cent of its total expected revenue. It also hoped to rake in the same amount from stamp duties.

For the government, which faces an overall deficit potentially larger than the HK$54.4 billion it had originally forecast earlier this year, land sales are a significant source of revenue for funding infrastructure projects.

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Hong Kong on Friday added two major shark families to a list of endangered animals whose trade in the city will be tightly controlled under CITES regulations.

The city is one of the world’s largest markets for shark fin, which is viewed by many Chinese communities as a delicacy and often served as a soup at expensive banquets.

Its trade is regulated under an international treaty on endangered species that requires export permits proving it was sustainably captured.

CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) — the treaty’s governing body — approved in November a plan to include the requiem shark and the hammerhead shark families on their list, which includes more than 50 species.

Hong Kong amended its list of endangered species “to give effect to the latest regulations of CITES on the controlled species”, a spokesman for the city’s agriculture, fisheries and conservation department said on Friday.

The new protected species list includes the two shark families, as well as various types of turtles and stingrays, according to the statement.

Domestic consumption has shrunk after years of activist campaigning, but Hong Kong remains a vital trade hub for shark fins — both legal and illegal — headed for the Chinese mainland and Southeast Asia.

Marine experts in Hong Kong say the majority of shark fins consumed in the city are blue sharks — which are part of the requiem family.

“Before the two families were covered, around 20 percent of the shark fins imported to Hong Kong were under control. But now with the two families, up to 90 percent would come under control,” Stan Shea, marine programme director for the BLOOM Association, told AFP.

He added that effective regulation would depend on the government training up frontline officers on the visual inspection and DNA examination of the fins, in order to identify the protected species.

Marine biologists estimate that more than 100 million sharks are killed each year, pushing vital apex predators towards extinction and ocean ecosystems to the brink of collapse.

Those killed for their fins have the appendage sliced from their bodies before being thrown back into the sea, where they suffer a slow death.

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Hong Kong’s medical sector lawmaker has said it was “unrealistic” to expect a new medical school to address the manpower crunch in the short term, after the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) proposed establishing the city’s third medical school.

Lawmaker David Lam spoke about HKUST’s plan to open a medical school on an RTHK radio show on Friday.

“Relying on this medical school to solve Hong Kong’s shortage of doctors in the short term is unrealistic. Maybe it might in the long term,” Lam said in Cantonese.

HKUST president Nancy Ip told lawmakers at a meeting on Wednesday that the university intended to establish a medical school in Hong Kong. It would be the city’s third medical school, after the University of Hong Kong and Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Lam said HKUST had yet to present a plan on collaborating with teaching hospitals, where medical students would train.

Hong Kong has long faced a shortage of doctors at public hospitals, an issue exacerbated by an emigration wave amid Beijing’s national security law and strict restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Hospital Authority said in late June that the attrition rates of doctors and nurses in the year 2022/23 were 7.1 per cent and 10.9 per cent respectively. Allied health staff, a term referring to health professionals such as occupational therapists, clinical psychologists and dieticians, also saw a high attrition rate of 8.4 per cent.

According to lawmaker Edward Leung Hei, who also attended the meeting, HKUST plans to admit 50 medical students when the “first phase” commences in two to three years. The university hopes to gradually increase its yearly intake to 200 students, he said.

‘Urgent’ demand

In a reply to HKFP, a HKUST spokesperson cited an “urgent” demand for medical services in Hong Kong amid an aging population. The spokesperson added that health technology and biomedical sciences were among key research topics at the university.

Hong Kong has undertaken measures in recent years to tackle the manpower shortage in the medical sector, including relaxing rules for admitting overseas doctors to work in public hospitals. Authorities have also held job fairs in Australia and the UK to attract graduates to work in the city in the past months.

The Hospital Authority said in August that 100 overseas doctors would join the Hospital Authority following its recruitment efforts to address the “urgent situation.”

Among the 100 doctors recruited, around two-thirds were from the UK while the remaining were from countries such as Australia. The first batch of ten doctors started working in Hong Kong in September.

The HKUST’s proposal was backed by other lawmakers as well as the city’s education minister.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Secretary for Education Christine Choi said she supported the plan, citing a growing demand for healthcare services as well as Hong Kong’s “developmental needs” under China’s 14th Five-Year Plan, which is Beijing’s national blueprint outlining key policies and goals.

Leung, the lawmaker who was at the HKUST meeting, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday that he had “all along been concerned about healthcare development in Hong Kong.”

He said HKUST planned to allow degree holders to enrol, meaning those who have studied an undergraduate degree unrelated to medicine can study at the medical school.

“[I] believe that for young people who did not study medicine in university, but hope to change fields and become a doctor, this presents an attractive career development path,” he wrote.

Leung added that the university would have “rigorous checks” in place to ensure students meet all requirements and standards.

He also said the university was seeking more resources to set up an innovation and technology park as well as additional student dormitories.

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Hong Kong’s metro system should review its protocols for Typhoon 9 signals, a former chief of the city’s observatory has said after the suspension of MTR overground trains left thousands of commuters and tourists stranded for hours during Typhoon Koinu on Sunday.

Shun Chi-ming, former director of the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO), wrote in a Chinese op-ed in Ming Pao that the MTR should decide whether to halt services based on the “actual weather situation,” rather than automatically suspending services when the Typhoon 9 signal is in force.

The MTR’s current policy is to pause overground train services once the Observatory issues the Typhoon 9 signal, Shun said, a protocol that dates back to July 2012 when a felled tree damaged a cable near Tai Po MTR station as Typhoon Vicente hit the city.

“But it is worth noting that the situation then and on Sunday was very different,” Shun wrote, explaining that the overall wind force of Koinu was much weaker compared to Vicente due to its “compact circulation.”

The HKO gave just a 15-minute warning before issuing the T9 signal for Typhoon Koinu on Sunday, as the city braced for strong rains and winds.

Scenes of commuters stuck at MTR stations circulated on social media on Sunday evening after the railway company suspended overhead train services, citing safety concerns. MTR staff distributed water and biscuits while they waited.

The Airport Express was also halted. At the arrival hall of the Hong Kong International Airport, travellers waited in long lines for taxis to take them to the city.

Shum, who headed the Observatory for almost nine years until retiring in 2020, also said it was difficult to forecast T9 signals well in advance.

“When the eye of the storm is directly hitting Hong Kong, destructive winds can happen very quickly. Therefore, we should not expect that the Observatory can give… [advance] warnings like it can for a T8 signal,” he wrote.

The T9 warning for Typhoon Koinu was in place for almost five hours on Sunday before being lowered to a T8 signal just before midnight.

When Super Typhoon Saola struck Hong Kong in early September, the Observatory issued warnings two-and-a-half-hours in advance. But there were no warnings ahead of the T9 signals for Super Typhoon Mangkhut and Typhoon Higos in 2018 and 2020 respectively, according to local news outlet The Collective.

Hong Kong has been hit by a series of extreme weather events in recent weeks which experts have said are linked to the climate crisis. A week after Super Typhoon Saola, record-breaking rainfall drenched the city with cars stranded on flooded roads and an entire MTR station exit submerged. The city has also seen its hottest summer on record.

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Hong Kong has spent HK$10 million on enhanced food safety checks since the city banned seafood from parts of Japan and expanded radiation inspections on all Japanese food imports.

Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan told lawmakers at a meeting on Tuesday that the city had invested HK$6 million on radiation inspection equipment, and another HK$3.8 million on manpower to carry out the reinforced safety checks, implemented since late August.

“At the moment the burden is not very big, and it is part of our system for protecting food safety in Hong Kong,” he said in Cantonese.

The environment chief’s comments, made at the Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene, came as Japan began its second phase of releasing treated wastewater from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant last week. The plant was damaged by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami in March 2011.

Hong Kong introduced the radiation checks and banned the import of seafood from 10 places including Fukushima and Tokyo on August 24, the same day that Japan started discharging treated wastewater into the Pacific Ocean.

The government – which has called Japan’s move to release the wastewater over a 30-year period “irresponsible” – said it has no plans to relax its restrictions.

On Japanese food imports that are not restricted, authorities have been conducting “comprehensive radiological tests” to ensure that radiation levels are within safe limits before they are released from the airport. All food imports have passed the tests so far.

According to the government, authorities spot check around 150 samples of Japanese food products daily, while the rest are inspected with hand-held radiation devices.

Globally, the reaction to Japan’s move has been muted. The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said in July that the discharge was in line with international standards.

Erik Yim, a lawmaker representing commercial interests, asked Tse whether the government would consider raising import taxes on Japanese food products to cover the increased expenditure.

In response, Tse said there was no intention to do so.

“But of course, if we find out that there are problems with the Japanese food… we will definitely strengthen our management of it,” he added.

Since the government tightened its import measures, restaurateurs have complained that the prolonged checks at the airport had caused food delivery delays. Political analysts have said that politics play a role in the authorities’ response to Japan’s move, with China having banned Japanese seafood entirely.

‘Water will flow and fish will swim’

Lawmakers have expressed support for the government’s reaction to Japan’s decision to discharge the treated wastewater. Some have also called on authorities to expand the import restrictions to cover a wider area.

Legislator Chan Hoi-yan – who chairs the food safety panel – said Japan was not just releasing one round, but multiple rounds, of wastewater. She asked whether the government may consider further tightening restrictions to cover other cities in Japan, or even other countries.

“Water will flow and fish will swim… we also have to check [seafood from] other places,” Chan said.

Tse said in response that the government had banned seafood from the 10 places in Japan after evaluating that the nuclear concentration would be highest in Fukushima, and that by the time the water has flowed out, it would be diluted.

Lawmaker Bill Tang, who joined a petition in August outside the Japanese consulate to protest the country’s move, asked whether the government’s ban covered food on airplanes.

“Many Hong Kong people like to go to Japan for holiday. If the… airline’s meal uses ingredients from Fukushima, will that be subject to any restrictions? Is it disallowed under the law, or is it a legal grey area?” he said.

Tse answered: “If they are airline meals supplied from Hong Kong, they must follow the laws in our jurisdiction. But if the airline meals are supplied from other countries, for example flying from Japan back [to Hong Kong], those will not be subject to our restrictions.”

While there have been no incidents of Japanese food imports exceeding radiation levels, authorities said there had been seven cases in which importers were suspected of breaching import control measures. Most were said to not have provided the necessary documentation needed for some Japanese food imports.

The latest was a batch of frozen chicken wings imported from Ibaraki prefecture that were imported to the city last Friday. The food was “not accompanied with a radiation certificate,” the Centre for Food Safety said.

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 HKFP has assembled a guide to mental health services available in Hong Kong. Last updated: June 2023.

Although this guide has been compiled with information from reputable sources such as the Hospital Authority, and facts have been cross-checked with those working in local mental health fields, owing to the sensitive nature of the topic, HKFP does not accept any liability for the professional integrity or ability of organisations listed.

Seeking medical help: Public hospitals & governmental services

Hospital Authority: A person wishing to receive medical assistance for mental health illnesses – be it depression, anxiety, eating disorders, or substance abuse – via public hospitals or clinics first needs a referral from a general doctor. Following that, a meeting with a specialist will be arranged, and a triage assessment then determines how urgent the patient’s case is. The waiting time to be referred to an outpatient clinic at a psychiatry specialist outpatient clinic is dependent on the assessment. Currently, the waiting time for each hospital cluster is as follows:

Waiting times from April 2022 to March 2023 for what is determined to be a “stable case” are up to 95 weeks for those in Kowloon East. Waiting times for urgent cases — making up 5 per cent of the total 51,271 case bookings — are about a week, and for semi-urgent cases, three to four weeks.

If a person’s condition is serious and urgent, and they would like to seek immediate help, they could check themselves into a hospital by approaching an A&E department, or by calling 999. Depending on the severity, patients could be required to stay in hospital – one could be voluntarily admitted by giving consent or involuntarily committed under the order of doctors. Patients who do not require hospital stays or who are discharged may be referred to the specialist out-patient clinics and continue receiving treatment there.

Depending on the situation and needs of the patient, the specialist clinic could also refer the patient to clinical psychologists with the Hospital Authority to facilitate recovery.

Patients with special needs may be referred to the Castle Peak Hospital, which provides services such as alcohol and substance abuse treatment, old age psychiatry and more. The Hospital Authority also has a special programme for patients with psychosis.

All charges are in accordance with those of the Hospital Authority, listed here.

Social Welfare Department: Aside from the Hospital Authority, the Social Welfare Department also provides free clinical psychology assistance. One can call the departmental hotline for assistance and visit the Integrated Family Services Centre in their district, and speak with a social worker; after the initial screening, the social worker may make a referral to the corresponding Clinical Psychology Unit for psychological services.

For free one-stop mental health services, anyone aged 15 or above and their families can also visit the department’s Integrated Community Centres for Mental Wellness, which are found in all districts in the city. Those in need can then be referred to the Hospital Authority’s Community Psychiatric Service.

The department also has a hotline service available during working hours. Calls are transferred to the Hotline and Outreaching Service Team operated by the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals. Callers can either speak to a hotline counsellor or opt to leave a message or seek police assistance.

Private services: psychiatrists, Psychologists and counsellors

Psychiatrists: A psychiatrist in Hong Kong is a medical practitioner registered under the Medical Registration Ordinance who has applied to the Medical Council of Hong Kong for a specialist qualification meeting the professional standard recognised by the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine. A psychiatrist can diagnose and treat mental illnesses, as well as prescribe medication.

Here is a bilingual list of private psychiatrists practising in Hong Kong, supplied by the Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists (under the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine). The website hkdoctors.org – put together by the Hong Kong Medical Association – also has a searchable directory of psychiatrists practising in Hong Kong.

It is, however, advisable to call in advance to inquire about the fees charged by each individual psychiatrist, as prices could range anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars to over a thousand dollars or more a session.

Counselling & Clinical Psychology: There is no statutory registration system for counsellors and psychologists, and the government does not hold information about registration and practice.

Because of this, it is not mandatory for any person to be licensed or registered with a government agency or professional board before providing clinical psychology services or using the name of “clinical psychologist” in Hong Kong. Therefore, any person could use the title “clinical psychologist” without being qualified.

The Hong Kong Psychological Society’s Division of Clinical Psychology, founded in 1982, is a professional body in clinical psychology, and members have completed either a master’s or doctorate training programme in clinical psychology. Its twin organisation is the Hong Kong Clinical Psychologists Association, and the membership criteria for both organisations are set up with the help of authorities such as the Hospital Authority, Department of Health, and Social Welfare Department.

The Hong Kong Association of Doctors in Clinical Psychology, set up in 2011, is also a professional organisation comprised of members, being clinical psychologists who have earned a doctoral degree, and their list of clinical psychologists can be found here.

The US Consulate has compiled a list of psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and counsellors, although it does not assume responsibility for the professional ability or integrity of the firms or persons whose names appear on the list.

Other services & support

Eating disorders: The Hong Kong Eating Disorders Association Limited offers assistance to those suffering from eating disorders. Set up in 1999, it consists of psychiatrists, family doctors, psychologists, social workers and dieticians. It provides treatment in the form of dietetic consultancy and psychotherapy. It also has an enquiry hotline, and organises social activities for its members, and free support groups for patients and caregivers of those suffering from eating disorders.

The Hong Kong Eating Disorders Centre at the Chinese University of Hong Kong offers weekly 45-minute sessions, with each session priced at HK$1,400-$1,600.

Substance abuse: The local Alcoholics Anonymous hosts meetings as regularly as a few times a day – be it discussions, book studies or talks – mostly in English, although sometimes also in Cantonese. Services are free of charge and although it follows a 12-step recovery programme, members are free to leave at any point.

Aside from substance abuse clinics run by the Hospital Authority and the Department of Health’s 18 voluntary out-patient methadone treatment clinics, organisations such as Caritas Hong Kong and the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation Abusers also run two Centres for Drug Counselling as well as voluntary residential treatment rehabilitation programmes.

For more information, visit the Narcotics Division’s page here.

OCD & Anxiety: OCD & Anxiety Support Hong Kong is a non-profit that hosts meetings for people to share their fears and anxiety in a confidential environment. Sessions are free and held monthly; although they are conducted in English, translation services can be provided if notified in advance.

Mood disorders: The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Hong Kong Mood Disorders Center provides clinical psychology services for those suffering from OCD, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD; each session costs HK$1,400 – HK$1,600.

Psychosis: Apart from government services such as the Hospital Authority’s EASY programme, the Early Psychosis Foundation also offers education and training on dealing with psychosis. The University of Hong Kong also has a website providing information relating to psychosis.

Multilingual services: The St. John’s Cathedral Counselling Services serves all in Hong Kong regardless of age, race, residency status, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc. The centre has counsellors who speak English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Hindi, and Polish language skills. Fees are based on a “multiple factor sliding fee” and take into account monthly household income; they are made “as affordable as possible”, according to the organisation. The centre is a member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, American School Counsellors Association, and National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers.

ReSource: The Counselling Centre is also a multicultural organisation that offers confidential counselling on a range of issues in at least seven languages – English, Cantonese, Putonghua, Russian, Hindi, Marathi and Marwadi. Similar to St. John’s Cathedral Counselling Services, ReSource adopts a sliding fee scale based on each client’s family income (around HK$350-$450 a session for families earning HK$10,000 a month, although the staff advises potential clients to call to ask for a more accurate estimate of the fees). The centre is an organisational Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and Agency Member of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service.

The Oasis: Hong Kong Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy offers counselling and psychiatry services, marriage and family therapy, art and music therapy and more, in English, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Tagalog. Oasis also holds support groups for stress and anxiety, addictions recovery, grief, and more.

The New Normal Hong Kong hosts free Cantonese mental health peer support groups designed to address the unique mental health challenges faced by individuals in Hong Kong. Launched in Hong Kong in 2022, the charity aims to foster empathy, kindness, and a strong sense of unity within the community.

Recovery services: New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association helps those recovering from mental illness on their path to leading independent lives. Services it provides include free employment assistance (including training and workshops), counselling and wellness programmes, and family support. It also offers a variety of residential services such as long stay care homes, halfway houses and hostels in different locations across the city. Applicants are required to pay fee charges stipulated by the Social Welfare Department and other charges specified by the Houses, and those with financial difficulties can apply for Comprehensive Social Security Assistance.

Fu Hong Society also offers halfway houses and temporary residences for those recovering from mental health problems, in addition to providing clinical psychology counselling. Prices are also charged according to fees stipulated by the Social Welfare Department.

The Alliance of Ex-mentally Ill of Hong Kong regularly organises events for mental illness recoverees such as outings and birthday parties to build a supportive network for them. It also advocates for the rights of those suffering from mental health problems and engages in community outreach and education programmes to eliminate the social stigma attached to mental illnesses. The Christian Oi Hip Fellowship provides religious and spiritual support to mental illness recoverees.

Support services for families: The Baptist Oi Kwan Social Service has a family resource and service centre providing support and counselling for families of those recovering from mental illnesses.

Emergencies, suicide prevention & crisis intervention: The Samaritans provide a 24-hour multilingual suicide prevention hotline service and for less urgent cases, the organisation also provides an email service, with a response usually within 24 hours.

The Samaritans Befrienders Hong Kong has, in addition to a 24-hour hotline (service provided mainly in Cantonese), a life education centre which promotes suicide prevention via community services, as well as a suicide crisis intervention centre which provides crisis intervention and counselling. Suicide Prevention Services also has a 24-hour hotline, only available in Cantonese.

The Hong Kong Society of Counselling and Psychology has two hotline numbers one can call to book free face-to-face, telephone or online counselling services (WhatsApp and phone at 62181084, and WhatsApp at 92383400). Those seeking help will be referred to the members of the professional organisation, which includes counselling by postgraduate students led by veteran counsellors with five to ten years of experience; they can also arrange psychology treatment depending on the case. Counselling is available in both Cantonese and English, and the group also provides instant intervention services. Most services are free except in exceptional cases.

Those who feel that they are at an imminent risk of suicide should contact the emergency services immediately on 999.

Family Crisis Services: The Family Crisis Support Centre operated by Caritas provides 24-hour assistance to people of all ages, genders and races. Services provided include 24-hour hotline service, short-term emergency intervention with overnight accommodation, temporary retreat and others.

Po Leung Kuk has a hotline for women who require emotional support or are facing family violent situations; the number also deals with applications for admission to refuge centres. There is also a 24-hour hotline aimed at providing emotional support to men troubled by relationships with their families.

Services for teens: The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups has a counselling service targeted towards young people (aged 6 to 24) and their parents; it offers online counselling and a counselling hotline that runs Monday to Saturday, 2pm to 2am.

Breakthrough has an individual psychological counselling service aimed at young people aged 18 to 30, and a family counselling service for families of young people aged 11 to 18. Fees are charged in accordance with the income of the client and his/her family.

Youth Outreach has a 24-hour hotline for young people from ages 8 to 18. The organisation also offers assistance with regards to emergency accommodation, individual and family counselling, academic and career advice, and so on.

The Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs Association of Hong Kong has a trauma treatment service for children aged 3 to 12, as well as their families; prices for each session range from HK$200 to $800 depending on one’s family income. Families with financial difficulties ($10,000 or below ) could apply for subsidies.

The Hong Kong Children & Youth Services offer a range of services including foster care, clinical psychology, substance abuse, home care services and more.

University services: Most universities provide mental health services to their students; at the University of Hong Kong, one can contact CEDARS for free counselling services, or the University Health Services for medical help. The Chinese University of Hong Kong also has a student counselling and development service.

For similar services provided by other universities, refer to the following links: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, Lingnan University, The Education University of Hong Kong.

Financial management and gambling: The Caritas Addicted Gamblers Counselling Centre, established in 2003, is comprised of registered social workers, certified gambling counsellors, and welfare workers, to provide support for “problem gamblers”, or people who display persistent and recurrent problematic gambling behaviour. Hotline services are in Cantonese.

The Healthy Budgeting Family Debt Counselling Centre, run by the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, provides debt relief consultations and assistance in applying for bankruptcy, as well as counselling services from registered social workers. The centre also promotes healthy budgeting to students in secondary school, tertiary institutions, and universities.

Art therapy: The Hong Kong Association of Art Therapists consists qualified art therapists with extensive knowledge in art therapy, many of whom are registered in the UK. Their services range from treatment for anxiety and eating disorders to special education needs and trauma.

Others: Other organisations that provide support services – such as support groups, workshops, advocacy work – for those suffering from mental illnesses include the United Centre of Emotional Health & Positive Living, the Christian Family Service Centre, and the Baptist Oi Kwan Social Service.

The government has also compiled a general list of mental health services provided by various organisations here.

Online services & resources

The Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists has an archive of resources on topics such as mental disorders, substance abuse, psychological well-being, and forms of treatment. This Hospital Authority page has information on depression and a list of supporting organisations one can contact while the Institute of Mental Health, Castle Peak Hospital website also has a mental health information section.

The Mental Health Association of Hong Kong‘s resource page has information on mental illnesses, though it is only available in Chinese and Mandarin. Mind Hong Kong has over 1,000 pages of open resources on mental health in both English and Chinese, and its chatbot helps users access mental health service providers in Hong Kong.

7 cups of tea is an emotional health and well-being service that connects people anonymously with real listeners from all over the world in one-on-one chat or group chat rooms. Listeners are trained to deal with a variety of topics such as grief, breakup, anger management, depression and so on. However, it does not provide suicide prevention guidance and can only refer you to a hotline.

The Mighty is a “digital health community” which has a dedicated section to essays on Mental Health.

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The Observatory replaced the T9 storm signal with the T8 warning at 11:50 pm on Sunday, as Typhoon Koinu began to weaken.

The Observatory said that intense rain bands were still affecting the region: “Locally, more than 100 millimetres of rainfall were recorded over most parts of the territory since midnight, and rainfall even exceeded 200 millimetres over the urban areas, Tseung Kwan O and Lantau Island.”

It issued the black rainstorm warning at 4 am, meaning rainfall exceeding 70 millimetres in an hour had fallen, or was expected to fall.

The T3 Strong Wind Signal will replace the T8 signal at 11.40 am, it added.

In a Monday press release, the government said that 25 people had sought medical treatment at emergency rooms during the typhoon period. There have been nine reports of fallen trees, two confirmed flooding cases, and one report of a landslide. 286 people have sought refuge at temporary shelters.

Schools, courts, sports centres, all child care centres, elderly services centres and day rehabilitation units, as well as other government services will remain closed on Monday morning. Ferries to outlying islands will remain suspended.

The MTR was running a limited service on Monday morning, after hundreds were left stranded at the airport in the early hours.

Around 90 flights had been cancelled, the Airport Authority said. It added that passengers were asked to remain at the terminal for safety reasons.

Travellers waited hours for taxis, as the Airport Express rail line was halted. However, it reopened from around midnight to 3 am to clear the backlog.

Typhoon Koinu’s arrival comes a month after the city was battered by extreme weather events that experts have said are linked to the climate crisis.

Hong Kong saw its first T10 storm signal since 2018 in early September as Super Typhoon Saola brought strong winds to the territory. A week later, the city was hit by record-breaking rainfall that saw cars stranded on flooded roads and an entire MTR station exit submerged underwater. The city has also seen its hottest summer on record.

The weather will improve mid-week, with a sunny weekend in store.

Typhoon Signal 8

When the No. 8 signal is issued, gale or storm force winds are affecting, or expected to affect, Hong Kong.

• The Hong Kong Observatory will make a special announcement within two hours before the signal is hoisted. Most offices and businesses will then close and people without special reasons for staying out are expected to go home.
• All school classes and most government services will halt.
• Ferry services will give notice as to when they will stop running, while most bus routes will halt within two hours after the signal is issued.
• MTR trains will run normally unless weather conditions worsen.
• Citizens should return home or stay in a safe place, and avoid low-lying areas likely to be flooded.
• Temporary shelters will be opened in government buildings for people with no safe refuge.

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At a Japanese restaurant in a Hong Kong commercial district, the eatery’s newest dishes raised eyebrows.

The menu advertised sashimi bowls layered with savoury blue jelly, or “radioactive water,” a tongue-in-cheek nod to recent curbs on Japanese seafood after treated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was released into the ocean. The dish did not, however, contain anything from Fukushima or other regions from which Hong Kong had restricted imports.

Days after HKFP visited the restaurant, it was inspected by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, asked whether it was using ingredients from restricted regions and ordered it to stop serving the “radioactive” bowls.

The stunt came after Hong Kong – the second-largest importer of Japanese seafood behind mainland China last year – banned aquatic products from 10 parts of Japan in late August, the same day the country began releasing the treated nuclear wastewater. Mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong are among the few places that have restricted Japanese imports. The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said in July that Japan’s move was in line with international standards.

The blue-hued bowls – an apparent mockery of Hong Kong’s ban – was as far as the owners went in criticising the authorities. In a social media post a day before the import restrictions were enacted, the restaurant said it respected the government’s regulations.

The restaurant owner declined to speak on the record with HKFP, a reticence common among restaurant owners when asked what they think of the controls. Political experts said their hesitation reflected the reality in Hong Kong today where self-censorship is the norm – even in sectors unrelated to politics.

Developments in Hong Kong in recent years, from the disbanding of civil society groups under the national security law to overhauls of legislative and district administration electoral systems, left little room for criticism of the government, experts said.

“I think there is definitely a chilling effect in society that makes people unwilling to openly say anything that is against the government,” Liu Dongshu, an assistant professor who researches Chinese politics at the City University of Hong Kong, told HKFP.

In addition to the bans, the government has also started conducting radiological tests on all aquatic products from elsewhere in Japan, causing delays to food air-freighted from the country, restaurant owners told HKFP. Some said they had been forced to apologise to diners when ingredients were still at the airport at dinner time, forcing them to make last-minute menu changes.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department told HKFP that as of September 24, all samples tested had passed the radiological tests.

Y, the director of a Japanese izakaya in the Wong Tai Sin neighbourhood, said the restrictions had brought significant inconvenience. He asked to stay anonymous as he feared reprisal from the authorities.

Often, diners who wanted to eat more premium sashimi would reserve in advance. But due to delays, Y said he had to tell customers their orders would not arrive in time and ask if they could come the following evening instead.

“It’s most awkward when they’re not free the next day,” Y told HKFP, speaking in Cantonese. “If we are not able to sell the order to another table, then we will make a loss.”

The government has denied that the delays were related to radiation checks, attributing it to increased imports and importers not completing the necessary paperwork.

Y said that if restaurateurs spoke their mind, it could get them into trouble. He added he had read news reports of small businesses becoming victim of increased checks from government departments after being seen as critical of the authorities.

“This pressure [to stay silent] reflects that society no longer tolerates us expressing our views,” he added.

‘Loyalty’ to Beijing

There has been little international reaction to Japan’s wastewater discharge. But across the border, Beijing has banned all seafood imports from Japan and made strongly-worded remarks, rejecting Japan’s statements that the wastewater had been adequately treated.

 Japan was “putting its selfish interests” above people’s well-being and treating the Pacific Ocean as its own “private sewer,” China’s foreign ministry said. The hostility between the two countries dates back decades, to the Japanese invasion of China ahead of World War Two.

On Chinese social media platforms, people have called for boycotts of Japanese products, rallied behind local alternatives, and spread debunked rumours – including one about the death of a Japanese official who drank a glass of treated water from the nuclear plant at a 2011 press conference to prove the water’s safety.

The online chatter did not come out of left field. Since April 2021, when Japan first announced it would discharge the treated wastewater, Chinese state media – from national broadcasters to provincial-level platforms – have raised alarm, according to the Taiwan-based Information Operations Research Group.

Such messaging is amplified through YouTube channels, some of which came from content farms providing commentary on current affairs. They seemingly target Chinese users abroad, since the video hosting platform is blocked in the mainland.

The condemnation of Japan’s decision is less visible among the Hong Kong public, and the city has not banned Japanese seafood outright. But Hong Kong authorities have used similar language to the central government – describing the treated water as “nuclear-contaminated” – in press releases. Both governments have called Japan’s decision irresponsible, saying the discharge could impact the international community’s environment, ecology, and food safety.

Hong Kong’s restrictions include four landlocked places, raising questions about their scientific basis. Asked how the government decided to ban seafood from those regions, the Environment and Ecology Bureau did not respond directly.

“The discharge of such nuclear-contaminated water in such a large scale (130 Million cubic metres) and for such a long period (30 years) is unprecedented and there is no established international standards or practices for such discharge,” the bureau said.

The release of the treated wastewater came more than a decade after an earthquake in 2011 hit Japan’s Fukushima prefecture and damaged reactors at a nuclear plant. The country said it would discharge the water – which was used to cool the reactors – over a period of 30 years.

The water is being discharged in phases. The first was completed in mid-September, and the second phase of release began on Thursday.

Liu said that while he believed the Hong Kong government did have food safety concerns, it was “safe to say” that political factors were also at play. 

“[The Hong Kong government] faces tremendous political pressure to follow the central government more closely than before the social movement,” Liu said, referring to the protests and unrest in 2019. “Hong Kong [has to show] a kind of loyalty.”

In August, lawmakers and members of the city’s largest pro-establishment groupings – the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong and the Federation of Trade Unions – held separate protests outside the Japanese consulate to protest Tokyo’s decision. Representatives had organised multiple petitions up to the day of the discharge.

They also called on the government to take Beijing’s lead and ban all Japanese seafood imports, not just those from certain regions.

Tetsuro Kobayashi, a former political communications associate professor at the City University of Hong Kong who is currently at Tokyo’s Waseda University, said the parties were merely echoing the central government. Both held similar rallies when US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, a trip that China’s foreign ministry said “seriously undermined” the country’s sovereignty, he said.

“I think the rallies [against Japan] were completely a performative act,” he added. “I don’t think there’s any scientific solid ground to ban [all seafood] from Japan.”

Lawmaker Bill Tang, a member of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions who demonstrated outside the consulate, told HKFP he believed a complete ban on Japanese seafood would be “best.”

“We don’t understand how big the effect of the wastewater release would be. We need time to observe,” he said, adding that he did not think tests suggesting a negligible risk were comprehensive enough.

Asked if he thought the demonstrations were political, Tang said: “If that’s political, then I’d ask why the US government wants to ban Huawei.”

The lawmaker was referring to the US placing Huawei on a trade blacklist in 2019, meant to bar the Chinese smartphone company – which has become a symbol of the US-China tech war – from buying American software.

Tang also told HKFP he was not reducing his consumption of Japanese food. “I trust the government. If it’s passed [Hong Kong]’s radiation tests, I believe it is safe,” he said.

‘Very careful’

Restaurant owners with whom HKFP spoke said that while they saw a steep drop in diners right after the government enacted the restrictions, business had slowly been recovering.

Wu Chun-wa, a manager at a sashimi restaurant in the Shek Tong Shui neighbourhood, said he did not anticipate a serious hit to revenue in the long run.

“Diners are starting to come back,” Wu told HKFP in Cantonese after a busy Friday lunch hour in September. “Japan will discharge the water for 30 years. It’s not like people won’t eat Japanese food for 30 years.”

Restaurant owners said it was difficult to gauge the impact of the ban on food supply, because they ordered seafood from middlemen suppliers in Hong Kong. The options change daily and if certain items were unavailable, it was unclear whether it was because of the restrictions or for other reasons, such as there not being a fresh catch that day.

On the whole, they said their supply was not affected much, as most of the food they imported were from regions unaffected by the ban such as Hokkaido and Kyushu.

Kobayashi said he did not think most Hongkongers agreed with the government’s reaction to the wastewater discharge.

“The things that have transpired in the past three, four years in Hong Kong, people have a really good skill of discounting what the government is saying… they seek alternative information,” he said.

“It could be international media or the Japanese consulate,” Kobayashi said, referring to statements made by the Japanese consul-general that itwas “regretful” that Hong Kong authorities were referring to the treated waters as “contaminated.”

For Wu, the current restrictions were still acceptable as he could import the ingredients needed. But if the ban were to be expanded, as the pro-establishment groups had urged, Wu said his restaurant’s survival could be under threat.

“I think I’d gather with other restaurateurs and show my opposition. We’d have to make our own channels to speak out,” he said. “And we’d have to be very careful about our words.”

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The Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) hoisted the T9 storm signal at 7 pm on Sunday, as Typhoon Koinu skirted south of the city. The amber rainstorm warning was also raised just before 8:30 pm.

“The eyewall of Typhoon Koinu is gradually approaching the vicinity of the Pearl River Estuary. Under the influence of Koinu, gale winds are affecting many places over the territory, with occasional storm force winds offshore and on high ground,” the Observatory wrote in an 8:45 pm update.

“Depending on changes in local wind conditions, the Observatory will assess the need for issuing the Hurricane Signal, No. 10,” it added.

Typhoon Koinu’s arrival comes a month after the city was battered by extreme weather events that experts have said are linked to the climate crisis.

Hong Kong saw its first T10 storm signal since 2018 in early September as Super Typhoon Saola brought strong winds to the territory. A week later, the city was hit by record-breaking rainfall that saw cars stranded on flooded roads and an entire MTR station exit submerged underwater. The city has also seen its hottest summer on record.

Government departments stepped up precautionary work to brace for the effects of Typhoon Koinu.

The Drainage Service Department dispatched over 70 emergency teams to conduct inspections across the city, according to the authorities’ press release on Sunday evening.

The Highways Department has arranged road maintenance contractors and equipment such as grab lorries and chainsaws on stand by to clear roads when necessary.

As of 8:40 pm, the government had received at least 14 reports of fallen trees. No landslides or floods were reported.

Transport disruptions

Meanwhile, the MTR suspended overground rail routes as the city hoisted the T9 signal, leaving scores of commuters stranded, according to local media. Commuters were reportedly told to exit from the trains.

Hundreds of commuters were trapped at Tai Wai Station, HK01 reported. Long queues for taxis formed at a transport interchange next to the station, where some commuters attempted to hail taxis via apps.

The MTR Corporation said on social media that stations would provide water, biscuits and chairs to stranded commuters.

On Facebook, some people left critical comments on an MTR Corporation’s post stating that it had halted overground services “to ensure safety.”

“To ensure safety? Now people need to walk home. How is that ensuring safety?” one comment read.

Underground routes were operating at severely reduced intervals, with trains coming every 10 to 20 minutes on MTR lines.

All daytime routes operated by Citybus, KMB and LWB routes were suspended, while overnight routes run by KMB and LWB were also halted, the bus companies announced. Ferries to outlying islands were suspended by mid-afternoon.

Typhoon Signal 9

The No.9 signal indicates that gale or storm force winds are increasing, or expected to increase, significantly in strength.

• Residents are advised to stay indoors and away from exposed windows and doors to avoid flying debris.
• All schools and most government premises will be closed.
• Temporary shelters for people with no safe refuge will be opened by the government.
• Bus and ferry services will halt.
• MTR services on the Airport Express, East Rail Line, Disney Resorts Line and Light Rail network will cease.
• Some trains will run on the underground sections of other MTR lines as long as the situation remains safe.

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The Hong Kong Observatory has issued its Strong Wind Signal No. 3 as Typhoon Koinu approaches the city after making landfall in Taiwan.

The alert was raised at 5.40 pm, when Koinu was roughly 260 kilometres east-southeast of Hong Kong.

According to its present track, Tropical Cyclone Koinu is expected to be closest to Hong Kong on Saturday, by which time it will have weakened from a typhoon to a severe tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 105 kilometres per hour near its centre.

It made landfall on the southern tip of Taiwan on Thursday, bringing the strongest winds ever recorded on the island. An 84-year-old woman died after being injured by glass shattered during the gales.

Winds in Hong Kong were forecast to strengthen gradually on Friday, and there were swells, the Observatory said.

“Koinu is expected to edge closer to the vicinity of the Pearl River Estuary in the next couple of days,” the Observatory said. “With the circulation of Koinu being relatively small, the need for issuance of higher tropical cyclone warning signals by then will depend on the intensity of Koinu and its distance from Hong Kong.”

Squally showers were predicted for the weekend, causing the cancellation of several events under the government’s “Night Vibes Hong Kong” campaign, designed to boost consumption amid a weak post-pandemic recovery.

“As the harbourfront sites are exposed to wind and not sheltered, the [Development Bureau] has touched base with the co-organisers and decided to cancel the activities in the coming weekend in order to safeguard safety of the public and the stall operators, and to avoid inconvenience to the stall operators due to unstable weather,” the government said in a statement issued on Thursday night.

Extreme weather events increasing

Koinu follows what the Observatory described as an “eventful” month for extreme weather in Hong Kong.

In September, the city was hit by Super Typhoon Saola, the second most intense tropical cyclone to affect the South China Sea since 1950 that triggered the Hong Kong’s highest typhoon warning signal for the first time since 2018. With wind speeds of up to 154 kilometres per hour, it felled thousands of trees; damaged signboards, scaffolding and windows; and caused 460 flights to be cancelled.

A week later, prolonged torrential rain hit Hong Kong, causing the Black rainstorm warning to be in place for 16 hours and 32 minutes, the longest duration since the alert system was introduced in 1992.

At least two people died during the deluge, and more than 140 were injured.

Climate experts told HKFP last month that recent extreme weather events were a reminder that “climate change is really here,” adding that typhoons and temperatures would become more intense.

Typhoon Signal 3

The No. 3 signal warns of strong winds affecting, or expected to affect, Hong Kong within 12 hours.

• Classes of kindergartens and schools for children with physical or intellectual disabilities will be suspended.
• Scheduled ferry services may be cancelled as conditions worsen. Bus and MTR services are not affected.
• Residents should secure loose objects like flower pots or drying racks, and prepare for possible flooding in low-lying areas.

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Hong Kong’s largest pro-establishment party has urged the government to enact policies to promote childbirth, suggesting a one-off HK$10,000 subsidy for families and tax deductions to hire domestic workers may help encourage couples to have kids.

Addressing reporters on Thursday, five lawmakers from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) proposed around two dozen suggestions to combat the city’s low birth rate. They said the party had passed their recommendations to Chief Executive John Lee ahead of his Policy Address at the end of the month.

According to figures cited by the party, Hong Kong’s birth rate reached a 60-year low in 2020, with 43,000 babies born. In 2021, the figure fell further to 37,000.

Lawmaker Stanley Li said the government should offer families HK$10,000 to encourage them to have children, as well as HK$2,000 in yearly medical care vouchers to subsidise children’s healthcare expenditure.

In addition, Li said the government should provide tax deductions to families hiring domestic workers to reduce their financial burden.

“The tax deduction amount could be based on [domestic workers’] minimum monthly wage. Taking 2022 as an example, the amount that is tax deductible could be HK$55,560,” Li said in Cantonese, referring to last year’s minimum monthly wage of HK$4,630 multiplied by 12 months.

Hong Kong is home to around 340,000 domestic workers who typically take on household and childcare duties. Their contributions free up time for parents, allowing them to enter the workforce and earn more money to support the family.

Breastfeeding, IVF support

Besides financial subsidies, the party also suggested offering greater support to breastfeeding mothers, making work hours flexible, and measures related to egg freezing and in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

Lawmaker Nixie Lam, who gave birth to her first child in June, said Hong Kong was backwards globally when it came to supporting breastfeeding.

“Actually the government does advocate breastfeeding, and there are some committees that promote this. But in the community, it’s quite rare to see mothers breastfeed in certain places,” Lam said in Cantonese.

Amid the prevalence of late marriage in Hong Kong, the government could also provide more support for reproductive services, the party said.

As of 2021, the latest year that information was available for, the average age of marriage for men and women was 32.2 and 30.6, respectively.

Legislator Elizabeth Quat said many women tended to put family plans on hold to focus on their career, and by the time they were married and settled down, they could be in their late 30s. At that age, it could be difficult for them to get pregnant, Quat said.

“Fertility improvement technology is expensive and has a long wait time [at public hospitals],” Quat said in Cantonese.

Treatment at private clinics, Quat said, could be upwards of HK$100,000, a prohibitive cost for many families.

She said the government could consider countries like Israel, which she said subsidised IVF until families had two children. Other countries, she added, provided partial subsidies.

Quat also said the government should raise the maximum storage period of eggs to 55 years. Under Hong Kong law, the maximum storage period is 10 years unless the woman is freezing her eggs for a medical reason, such as an illness.

Calls from pro-establishment parties for the government to enact measures to encourage childbirth are not new. The Liberal Party said in August that the government should encourage “middle-class families” to have children by offering education vouchers to parents enrolling their children in international schools.

The New People’s Party said ahead of last year’s Policy Address that the government should give new parents a one-off HK$20,000 subsidy to incentivise them to have children.

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Pingtung, Taiwan

Typhoon Koinu left at least one person dead on Thursday as it grazed Taiwan’s southern tip, lashing the island with the strongest winds it has ever recorded and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of homes.

Koinu made landfall on the island’s southernmost Cape Eluanbi Thursday morning and had weakened as it moved into the Taiwan Strait by 3:00 pm (0700 GMT), according to the Central Weather Administration.

Authorities said an 84-year-old woman died in her home in Taichung city after she was injured by glass shattered due to the gales.

Pan Huang Kui-chun, a 68-year-old temple keeper in southern Pingtung county — the typhoon’s epicentre — said it was “terrifying” watching powerful winds bring down power poles.

“It nearly dismantled my house. I had to move all my deities to the side,” he told AFP.

“This time, the typhoon was especially big. Really big. The wind was really strong. And it blew for a very long time. It took a long time for it to pass.”

Overnight, the eastern volcanic islet of Orchid Island — home mostly to fishermen and farmers — experienced wind gusts equivalent to 342.72 kilometres per hour (212 miles per hour) as Koinu moved west, according to the weather administration.

“The maximum wind gusts of 95.2 metres per second measured in Orchid Island last night is a new record in Taiwan,” a forecaster told AFP.

Local media said around 2,400 homes on Orchid Island were without power, while the classrooms of an elementary school were damaged by the powerful gales.

Authorities had closed schools and offices on Thursday in anticipation of Koinu’s impact.

Taiwan experiences frequent tropical storms from May to November.

Experts say climate change has made the paths of tropical storms harder to forecast while increasing their intensity — leading to heavy rains, flash floods and strong gusts.

Downed power lines

Rain-drenched streets were deserted Thursday in Taiwan’s southern Taitung and Pingtung counties, with strong winds knocking over street signs and tearing off metal roofing.

More than 350 people were injured, the government said without providing any further details. Local media said some injuries were caused by falling trees.

Across Taiwan, nearly 330,000 homes temporarily lost power.

Downed electricity lines littered the roadside in Pingtung as work crews attempted to bring in fresh poles by truck. A supervisor told AFP it would take at least two days to restore all power.

More than 200 international and domestic flights were cancelled, while nearly 3,000 people in mostly mountainous regions were evacuated as a precaution.

Koinu comes about a month after Taiwan suffered its first direct hit in four years as Typhoon Haikui forced nearly 8,000 people to evacuate from their homes.

Koinu is expected to weaken as it moves towards the coastal waters of China’s eastern Guangdong province, according to the weather observatory in nearby Hong Kong.

The Chinese city, which was skirted by a typhoon last month before days later being flooded by the heaviest rainfall in 140 years, issued its lowest typhoon signal.

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September in Hong Kong was “an eventful month” when it came to extreme weather events, the government meteorological department has said. It came hours before it issued its lowest typhoon signal warning as Tropical Cyclone Koinu entered within 800 kilometres of the city.

“In terms of extreme weather, September 2023 was an eventful month in Hong Kong with the ferocious strike by Super Typhoon Saola on September 1 and 2, and the phenomenal rainstorm on September 7 and 8,” the Hong Kong Observatory said on Wednesday.

Saola, the second most intense tropical cyclone to affect the South China Sea since 1950, triggered the Observatory to issue its highest typhoon warning signal for the first time since 2018. With wind speeds of up to 154 kilometres per hour, it felled thousands of trees; damaged signboards, scaffolding and windows; and caused 460 flights to be cancelled.

A week later, prolonged torrential rain hit Hong Kong, causing the Black rainstorm warning to be in place for 16 hours and 32 minutes, the longest duration since the alert system was introduced in 1992.

From 4 pm on September 7 until the same time the following day, the Observatory recorded 638.5 millimetres of rain – about a quarter of the average annual rainfall. Meanwhile, flash floods and landslides across the city caused widespread disruption and damage to infrastructure.

At least two people died during the deluge, and more than 140 were injured.

The historic downpour also contributed to September’s record-breaking total rainfall of 1067.1 millimetres, more than three times the monthly normal of 321.4 millimetres.

September also set a record for the number of hot days in the month, with maximum temperatures from September 21 to 30 reaching at least 33 degrees Celsius.

The month’s mean temperature of 28.5 was 0.6 degrees hotter than September norms.

Climate experts told HKFP last month that recent extreme weather events were a reminder that “climate change is really here,” adding that typhoons and temperatures would become more intense.

Tropical Cyclone Koinu weakening gradually

The Hong Kong Observatory issued the Standby Signal No. 1 at 9.40 pm on Wednesday as Tropical Cyclone Koinu entered within 800 kilometres of the city.

Currently heading east towards coastal areas of mainland China’s Guangdong province, the Observatory said it expected Koinu to weaken gradually.

“Koinu may edge closer to the vicinity of the Pearl River Estuary over the weekend, but its intensity is expected to be relatively weak by then,” it said, adding that it would assess whether higher typhoon warning signals would need to be raised.

After recording its hottest October day ever on Wednesday, when the mercury rose to 34.6 degrees Celsius, the Observatory predicted cooler weather, showers and strong northerly winds for the weekend.

A number of events associated with the government’s “Night Vibes Hong Kong” – a push to reinvigorate the city’s evening economy amid weak consumption – have been postponed as a result of the poor forecast.

Among them, a series of outdoor activities such as skateboarding and basketball matches in Causeway Bay have been called off, while local media reported that the electricity supply to a night market at Wan Chai Harbourfront would be cut off if the Strong Wind Signal No. 3 is issued.

Typhoon Signal 1

The No.1 signal is the “Standby” signal. It is issued when a tropical cyclone is centred within about 800 kilometres of Hong Kong and may affect the territory.

• All schools and government services remain open.
• All public transport remains in service.
• The government advice is to take the tropical cyclone into account when planning activities and be wary of potential strong winds over offshore waters.

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Hong Kong has no plans to ease restrictions on Japanese seafood imports, the city’s environment chief has said ahead of the second phase of treated nuclear wastewater being released from the Fukushima plant into the ocean.

Speaking to reporters in Cantonese on Wednesday, Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan reiterated the government’s opposition to Japan’s “unilateral” decision to release wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant.

“The ball is in Japan’s court. If Japan does not change its ways, I don’t see that we are under any condition to [relax the bans],” Tse said.

While the international reaction to Japan’s discharge of treated wastewater – used to cool reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after it was damaged by a tsunami in 2011 – has been muted, Hong Kong has banned seafood imports from 10 places in Japan.

The restrictions cover the north-eastern Japanese prefecture of Fukushima as well as neighbouring Miyagi, Nagano and Tokyo. China, meanwhile, has banned Japanese seafood imports entirely.

Japan’s first phase of releasing the treated wastewater lasted from late August until mid-September. The second phase will begin on Thursday, the country announced earlier.

“If the [Japanese] government really continues to discharge the nuclear-contaminated water tomorrow, we have no choice but to continue banning seafood from 10 places in Japan… to ensure food safety and hygiene in Hong Kong,” Tse said.

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said in July that Japan’s move was in line with international standards, while the plant operator has also said the radioactivity levels of samples was well within safe limits.

As for how long the bans would be maintained, the environment chief said it depended on Japan’s actions.

When asked if the government would provide financial support for restaurants affected by the bans, Tse said he had spoken with industry representatives and that there was no major effect on restaurants’ business. He added that the government had been in communication with industry representatives early on, so they were able to prepare and adjust food supply.

The Hong Kong government now conducts “comprehensive radiological tests” on all aquatic products from Japan. All samples tested have so far passed inspections.

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Hong Kong students have been told to look after their eyesight and participate in an annual health assessment as the number of youngsters needing glasses increased by 4 per cent during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Students’ vision has deteriorated in recent years, particularly among lower-grade primary students, the Department of Health said on Tuesday citing data reviewed by the Student Health Service.

Between the 2015/16 school year and 2019/20, the percentage of Primary One students who wore glasses remained at 11 per cent. It rose to 15 per cent in 2020/21, after Hong Kong was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, and stayed the same for the 2022/23 school year, the department said.

The overall percentage of primary and secondary students who were referred to government optometry services also increased from 9.4 per cent in 2018/19 to 16.7 per cent in 2020/21, before dropping slightly to 13.2 per cent in 2022/23.

“During the Covid-19 epidemic, students had less participation in outdoor activities and spent more time online with electronic screen products, leading to a marked increase in screen time in primary and secondary students,” the department said in an English language statement.

Face-to-face classes were frequently interrupted throughout Covid, leaving students no choice but to learn remotely using electronic devices. The resumption of full-day in-person classes was later subject to vaccination requirements, before the city eased other Covid-19 policies.

The Department of Health also pointed to the proportion of primary school students who spent at least two hours per day on the internet or in front of screens for non-schoolwork purposes, which stood at 50.1 per cent in 2021/22. It marked a significant increase from 32.2 percent in 2018/19 and 25.8 per cent in 2015/16.

Similarly, the Student Health Services found that 81.2 per cent of the secondary students who attended its centres used the internet for at least two hours a day for purposes other than school assignments. The figure stood at 65 per cent in 2015/16.

Students should use proper lighting and keep a proper distance when viewing screens, the department said. They should also take breaks from time to time,, blink frequently, and get their eyes checked regularly, it said.

In August, a study by the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Medicine revealed that there had been a “myopia boom” in children aged six to eight, with near-sightedness reaching a record high in Hong Kong following the pandemic.

Results showed that myopia prevalence among the 20,527 children whose vision was examined before, during and after the pandemic increased by half on average after Covid-19 restrictions were lifted, reaching a record high of 36 per cent.

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The families of two local workers who were killed on Sunday in a suspected sewer gas leak at an underground site managed by the MTR Corporation (MTRC) have accused the contractor of negligence.

Police and firefighters received a report at 7:30 am on Sunday morning and recovered the victims – surnamed Lau, 63, and Kwok, 61 – from the underground pipe. They took them to Queen Elizabeth Hospital where they were pronounced dead.

Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan, speaking to reporters on Monday, said the police will conduct an investigation into potential criminal elements and negligence.

“There is no evidence showing that the contractor had complied with legal requirements,” Chan said. Those requirements include risk assessments, appropriate training, and suitable protective equipment.

Chan added that the Social Welfare Department would provide assistance, while the Labour Department will conduct an investigation considering occupational safety.

Six metres underground

The MTRC said the victims were working on a water cooling pipe connected to the air-conditioning system at Elements mall in West Kowloon, which the rail operator owns.

The rail giant vowed to assist in investigations and provide HK$100,000 to the families of each of the victims, while the contractors involved would jointly pay each family HK$200,000, local media reported.

In a statement on Sunday, the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims expressed its condolences, calling the incident “outrageous.”

Citing the Occupational Safety and Health Council’s regulations on working in confined spaces, the association said workers should maintain communication with staff in such spaces. Also, such areas should be adequately ventilated.

Firefighters told reporters that the two were found in a cooling pipe that measured 200-metres in length. They were found six metres below ground level, between the 100 and 200-metre mark. Rescuers also had to pump hydrogen sulphide gas out of the pipe.

The association’s chief executive Fay Siu said on an RTHK program on Monday that the worksite did not keep a record of the people working in confined spaces, suggesting loopholes in the contractor’s safety management. She also said it took hours for the contractor to contact the victims’ families, after they were pronounced dead.

‘Negligence’

Kwok’s widow said she made many unsuccessful attempts to get in touch with her husband’s boss when he failed to come home on Saturday night.

She told reporters at the hospital that her husband had decided to keep working – despite the fact their children had now entered the workforce – as it would help ease the strain on the family’s finances. “I bought mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival, but that’s just a dream now,” she said in Cantonese.

Lau’s son told reporters in Cantonese that his father had worked in the construction sector for some 40 years. He accused the contractor of negligence, asking: “Shouldn’t there have been someone monitoring the situation when workers were in confined spaces? How did nobody notice that two people didn’t get off work? Where was the supervisor?”

A spate of workplace incidents, some fatal, have put a spotlight on industrial safety in recent years. Labour rights groups have long said the fines faced by employers were insufficient for reflecting the severity of the offences and deterring offenders.

Safety equipment essential

Lee Kwong-sing, a safety advisor at the Hong Kong Construction Industry Employees General Union, told local media that workers have to complete a course approved by the authorities before they can work in confined spaces. Risk assessments must also be conducted for the space itself to check for fire and explosion hazards, heatstroke risks, and hazardous gases including hydrogen sulphide.

He also said workers are required by law to wear oxygen tanks and safety harnesses held by workers above ground to assist in a potential evacuation, and motion detectors equipped with alarms that go off when movement is not detected for more than 20 seconds.

Former president of the Hong Kong Institute of Utility Specialists Wong King told local media that the incident might have been related to leaks from damaged pipes nearby, which caused the sewer gas to accumulate within the cooling pipe.

He also said underground workers must carry gas detection alarms and must evacuate immediately if the concentration of toxic gas exceeds the legal limit.

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How Hong Kong enforced the Covid-19 mask mandate was a “violation of freedom of speech and freedom to demonstrate,” a pro-democracy activist charged over pulling down his mask for several seconds while protesting, told a court on Monday.

Dickson Chau, vice-chair of the League of Social Democrats (LSD), appeared in front of Magistrate Peter Yu at Kowloon City Magistrates’ Courts to dispute the offence.

Chau was handed a HK$5,000 fine on February 6 for briefly removing his mask outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building, where he and two fellow members from the pro-democracy group staged protests as the landmark 47 democrats’ national security trial began. They urged the immediate release of all political prisoners, AP reported.

See also: Hong Kong’s League of Social Democrats strives to survive as security law bites

Chau refused to pay the fine in June, claiming that it amounted to “political oppression.”

‘Violation’ of free speech

On Monday, the prosecution said Chau was seen pulling down his mask to shout for five seconds.

Testifying for the prosecution, police officer Lee Wai-wa said in Cantonese that he was on duty to secure public order outside the West Kowloon Courts complex that morning. He was standing about three metres away when he saw Chau pull down his mask at 9.23 am. His colleagues took Chau away into a police-owned vehicle and he handed Chau a demand notice at around 9.45 am.

Chau, unrepresented by a lawyer, asked Lee whether he agreed that the situation was “rowdy” and “chaotic” on the scene. Lee agreed.

Lee also agreed that there were more than 30 police officers present to handle the protest and to maintain order.

“I do not question the constitutionality of the mask mandate,” Chau, choosing not to testify, said in Cantonese in his closing statement. “[B]ut I do question the law enforcement as breaching the proportionality principle, as this prosecution is a violation of freedom of speech and freedom to demonstrate.”

“The essence of protesting is to make one’s voice heard,” Chau said, adding that he had no choice but to pull down his mask to raise his voice, given that the scene was packed with people and police officers.

Chau cited the influential HKSAR vs Yeung May Wan case in 2005, in which the top court ruled that peaceful demonstration is a constitutional right and the courts should give such freedom a generous interpretation.

A verdict is set to be handed down on October 20.

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Hong Kong lawmakers and NGOs have urged the government to strengthen support for carers after two middle-aged brothers who reportedly had intellectual disabilities were found dead at home following their mother’s admission to the hospital.

Police suspected that the two brothers, aged 53 and 55, died from starvation in Sau Mau Ping, Ming Pao reported.

According to local media reports, a security guard noticed an unusual smell from the men’s 38th floor unit and called the police. Firefighters arrived and broke into the house, where they discovered two decomposing bodies.

There was no food in their apartment’s fridge, police said.

According to the Hospital Authority, the mother was admitted to hospital in May due to a fungal infection. It also said that the two brothers had gone to the psychiatry department at public hospitals from 2014 to 2018. They were classified as stable cases and last attended appointments early 2018.

Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun said on Saturday that there was no record of the family seeking help from the Social Welfare Department. He added that the government would try to build a stronger social safety net to support caregivers.

Pro-establishment lawmaker Doreen Kong told Wen Wei Po that in improving measures to support carers, government departments such as the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, Health Bureau and Social Welfare Department needed to work together.

She suggested that government departments should develop a central system to share information about high risk cases.

Chief Executive John Lee said in his Policy Address last year that authorities would launch a series of measures to assist carers, such as set up a designated 24-hour hotline. The hotline, however, will only be introduced at the end of this month.

Lawmaker Frankie Ngan said the one-year preparatory work was “definitely slow,” and urged authorities to speed up its progress.

Lee Mei Yin, a board member of NGO Hong Kong Association of Workers Serving Persons with Intellectual Disabilities, said different government departments were responsible for the incident, and urged the authorities to probe the causes of the tragedy.

Social Worker and district councillor Sumly Chan said it was dangerous to leave people with intellectual disabilities unaccompanied as they might encounter difficulties in finding food and taking care of themselves. He urged the government to strengthen social services for people with disabilities and their carers.

Carers’ burden

Hong Kong, a city facing an aging population, has seen numerous incidents related to caregivers and their burdens in recent years.

Last December, a couple in their 70s were arrested over allegedly killing their 47-year-old daughter who had long-term illness. The tragedy marked the fifth caregiver-involved cases in four months.

Care for Carers, a joint platform formed by 20 NGOs and concern groups, estimated in 2022 that there were currently around 900,000 carers in Hong Kong taking care of people – including children and elderly – with disabilities, long-term illnesses and special needs.

The platform suggested that authorities increase financial support for carers, raise awareness of the role of carers to the public, and establish a one-stop centre for carers.

According to a report by the Census and Statistics Department on Hong Kong’s carers, over 50 per cent of carers who lived with and took care of people with disabilities and long-term illnesses indicated that they felt stressed in the past month.

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‘

Green groups have called on the government’s only wood processing plant to step up recycling operations and improve transparency after only 15 per cent of tree waste collected in the wake of Super Typhoon Saola was deemed suitable for recycling.

Saola triggered the Hong Kong Observatory to issue its highest storm signal on September 1 for the first time since Super Typhoon Mangkhut hit Hong Kong in September 2018.

Responding to enquiries from HKFP, a spokesperson for the Development Bureau said the government had received 3,700 reports of fallen or broken trees after Saola. The resulting debris was sent to temporary tree waste collection areas in the Kai Tak Development Area, South East New Territories Landfill, West New Territories Landfill, and North East New Territories Landfill, and garden waste recycling plant Y Park, the bureau said.

According to the Environmental Protection Department, the amount of tree waste generated was about 1,800 tonnes, most of which was twigs, small branches, and leaves.

The department estimated that about 270 tonnes of the tree waste – 15 per cent – could be recycled and would be delivered to Y Park for processing.

“Y Park is equipped with different processing equipment, such as wood crushers, wood cutting machines, etc., which can convert suitable fallen trees into different useful materials,” the Environmental Protection Department said in an emailed response to HKFP.

The remaining 1,530 tonnes would be sent to the city’s landfills, a department spokesperson confirmed by phone on Wednesday, after repeated enquiries on the waste deemed unsuitable for recycling would be handled.

Y Park was set up in June 2021 to “rachet up the scale of yard waste recycling and diversify the types of recyclable products,” according to it’s website. The government facility “can transform suitable yard waste into various useful materials such as wood boards, wood beams, wood chips and sawdust.”

After Mangkhut in 2018, green groups and scholars criticised the government for disposing of 20,480 tonnes of tree waste in the West New Territories Landfill without conducting any resource classification or seeing if it could have been recycled.

Prepared but limited

In a reply to HKFP, green group Friends of the Earth said that while the government was “more prepared” than it had been when Mangkhut hit Hong Kong, recycling efforts still had a long way to go.

Citing government figures over the past 10 years, the group said less than 3 per cent of the city’s yard waste had been recycled – some 2,000 tonnes out of 60,000 to 70,000 tonnes per year.

Caroline Law, board governor at Friends of the Earth, said Y Park had limited functionality, as it only accepted logs. Other garden waste, such as grass, leaves, and branches, must be sent to landfills for disposal, Law said, adding that most yard waste collected during daily maintenance of green spaces also came in the form of leaves and branches.

“There’s no incentive for them to change that,” Law told HKFP in Cantonese.

Environmental NGO The Green Earth suggested the government make use of organic resources recovery centre O Park1, which the green group said was not operating at full capacity. Citing government data, it said the facility could process 200 tonnes of material daily, but was handling an average of 135 tonnes per day, as of this June.

Law added that large quantities of organic matter would be needed to plant trees and build green infrastructure in the near future as the city moved towards greener development.

“We should make good use of government land for temporary storage of wood chips and yard waste, which can be left to decompose, then used for new town development or other green infrastructure projects,” Law said.

In 2017, Hong Kong vowed to cut carbon emissions by 26 to 36 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030, and in 2020, then-leader Carrie Lam announced plans to become carbon-neutral by 2050.

Top officials have vowed that mega-development projects under the Northern Metropolis initiative and artificial islands off Lantau will meet sustainability targets. A recent study found that parts of the Northern Metropolis could reach temperatures considered dangerous to human survival by the end of the century.

Transparency lacking

Friends of the Earth called on authorities to “openly and honestly” release detailed figures on Y Park’s operations: “Citizens should have the right to know how much waste was actually screened and sent to Y Park for disposal.”

Law, who holds a PhD in urban greening from the University of Hong Kong, said Y Park, as the only garden waste recycling facility in the city, should “improve transparency and make public the amount of yard waste processed and its output of useful materials… every month.”

Y Park’s website said its daily handling capacity, which began at 30 tonnes in its first year of operation, would gradually increase to 60 tonnes. But it has not regularly released figures on how much waste it handles.

Law also said that people should know whether the facility was indeed successful at achieving a circular economy – a system that produces little to no waste. If that was not the case, it should evaluate the reasons for the lack of demand, she added.

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Around 70 of the 85 houses along the seafront at an upmarket housing estate were suspected of being fitted with illegal structures, authorities have said, after a landslide triggered by record rains uncovered unauthorised works at two properties in the area earlier this month.

The owners of four houses at luxury estate Redhill Peninsula already confirmed to have unauthorised building work were issued orders to remove the illegal structures, the Buildings Department and Lands Department said in a statement issued on Friday.

Friday’s announcement came a week after development minister Bernadette Linn said the two departments would jointly launch large-scale inspections at the luxury estate overlooking Tai Tam Bay where the landslide occurred.

Serious unauthorised works

Four houses have been found to have “serious [unauthorised building works],” 70, 72, 74, and 76.

Local media have reported that house 74 had a three-storey illegal structure. To accommodate its basement, part of a retaining wall near the slope had been torn down. Houses 70 and 72 were also found to have installed illegal structures including basements.

“Regarding the other houses on Redhill Peninsula, the earlier incident has shown clearly that any unauthorised basements, damage to retaining walls or construction of unauthorised storeys in houses situated on the slope along the seafront will affect the stability of the slope and pose high risks to the structural safety of buildings,” the statement read.

Excluding the four aforementioned houses, an additional 70 homes overlooking the water were “preliminarily suspected” to have illegal works, and around 40 are believed to have unlawfully occupied government land, the departments said.

“If necessary, the Government will apply to the court for warrants and exercise powers in accordance with the law to enable the two departments to enter the houses for inspection and collection of evidence,” a spokesperson added.

5 months to complete repairs

Owners of the four properties issued with removal orders were required to appoint registered professionals to submit proposals and building plans to bring the houses back in line with the original plans. Work should commence within 90 days and be completed within 150 days from Friday.

Failure to comply with the removal orders could result in a maximum fine of HK$200,000 and up to one year in prison if convicted, and a further fine of $20,000 for each day that the removal order is ignored. Non-compliance with notices from the Lands Department to demolish structures on government land could result in a HK$500,000 fine and six months in prison, and a further fine of HK$50,000 for each day that the offence continues.

Last week, development policy think-tank Liber Research Community identified 173 instances of potential illegal occupation at luxury housing estates, in the form of unauthorised work such as backyards and swimming pools.

Liber’s Chan Kim-ching said those unauthorised works posed the same safety risks as the unauthorised works at Redhill Peninsula, which he said had affected the slope’s structural integrity, one of the factors that had caused the landslide.

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By Issam Ahmed

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is set Wednesday to host a climate meeting marred at its outset by the absence of speakers from the world’s top two emitters, China and the United States.

Despite increasing extreme weather events and record-shattering global temperatures, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and fossil fuel companies reap handsome profits.

Guterres has thus billed the “Climate Ambition Summit” as a “no nonsense” forum where leaders or cabinet ministers will announce specific actions that deliver on their commitments under the Paris Agreement.

The bar for making the podium was set high, with the UN chief making clear that only leaders who had made concrete plans to achieve net-zero greenhouse emissions would be allowed to speak.

After receiving more than 100 applications to take part, the UN finally released a list on Tuesday night of 41 speakers which did not include China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan or India.

“Tomorrow, I will welcome credible first movers and doers to our Climate Ambition Summit,” Guterres said Tuesday.

Several major leaders didn’t bother making the trip to New York for this year’s UN General Assembly, including President Xi Jinping of China and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak from the United Kingdom, who said he was too busy.

US President Joe Biden, who addressed the General Assembly on Tuesday, sent his climate envoy John Kerry to the meeting — though Kerry won’t be permitted to speak.

“There’s no doubt that the absence of so many leaders from the world’s biggest economies and emitters will clearly have an impact on the outcomes of the summit,” Alden Meyer of climate think tank E3G said.

He blamed competing issues — from the Ukraine conflict to US-China tensions and rising economic uncertainty.

“But I think it’s also the opposition in many of these countries from the fossil fuel industry and other powerful interests to the kind of transformational changes that are needed,” said Meyer.

Catherine Abreu, executive director of nonprofit Destination Zero, said it was “perhaps a good-news story that we see Biden not being given a speaking slot at the summit” because the United States is continuing to expand fossil fuel projects even as it makes historic investments in renewables.

“I think about this as being a correction from past summits, where leaders have been given the opportunity to take credit for climate leadership on the global stage, while they continue to pursue plans to develop fossil fuels, and continue driving the climate crisis back at home,” she added.

While the United States won’t take the rostrum, California will be represented by Governor Gavin Newsom. From Britain, London Mayor Sadiq Khan will also attend.

Growing anger

The event is the biggest climate summit in New York since 2019, when Greta Thunberg stunned the world with her “How Dare You” speech before the UN.

Anger is building among climate activists, particularly younger people, who turned out in thousands last weekend for the “March to End Fossil Fuels” in New York.

Observers are eager however to see what Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and European Union President Ursula von der Leyen say both on their own goals and on financing commitments for the developing world.

The failure of advanced economies, responsible for the majority of historic emissions, to honor their promises to the worst affected lower-income nations has long been a sore point in climate talks.

There are some bright spots, including the announcement that Colombia and Panama are joining a grouping called the Powering Past Coal Alliance — particularly notable as Colombia is the world’s sixth biggest coal exporter.

Wednesday’s summit comes weeks ahead of the COP28 climate talks in the United Arab Emirates, where goals include tripling renewable energy by 2030, and ending by 2050 the generation of fossil fuel energy that isn’t “abated” by carbon capture technology.

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Food importers have reportedly faced significant delays resulting in spoiled food, as shipments from Japan undergo prolonged visual inspections at Hong Kong International Airport.

The city’s food safety body has denied any connection between the delays and the inspections, instead citing increased imports and incomplete documentation.

The row came less than a month after Hong Kong banned seafood imports from 10 Japanese prefectures when the defunct Fukushima nuclear plant began discharging treated wastewater. Local government inspections for radiation have found no food safety issues, whilst international experts say the wastewater is safe.

Local tabloid Oriental Daily reported on Saturday that some shipments were being held for 24 hours, by which time the seafood had already gone bad. Importers who were at the airport said the delay was caused by visual inspections required for Japanese seafood imports.

HKFP has reached out to the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) for comment.

Shipments delayed

Claire Viaggi, director of food supplier Food Origin, said it took her three hours to pick up her shipments, and that more than 20 other drivers were at the airport on Saturday waiting to have their shipments processed.

“3 hours waiting for [Food and Environmental Hygiene Department] clearance because of shipments from Japan which have to be checked visually by inspectors,” Viaggi said in a post on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter. Drivers at the airport reportedly said it usually took them 45 minutes to an hour to process shipments.

Viaggi, who said she was not importing from Japan, said the new regulations caused processing delays for imports from across the globe. [FEHD] personnel were eventually able to implement a ticket system with separate queues according the origin of the shipment, she said, but not before some food turned bad.

An importer at the scene reportedly waited for up to 24 hours, which caused shipments of crab, fish, scallops, and sea urchin to spoil, resulting in losses of around HK$1 million.

Incomplete documents

The CFS told local media that there were 60 per cent more food imports than usual that day, and that documentation for some imports was incomplete, resulting in a longer wait. The spokesperson added that it took 3.5 hours, on average, to process food imports that day.

In July, Hong Kong authorities began ramping up radiation inspections of seafood imports from Japan and – following the ban in August – the CFS began releasing radiation test results. According to the latest figures on Friday, 3,408 Japanese food samples – over half of which were aquatic products, seaweed, and sea salt – were all satisfactory.

Experts say Japan’s release of treated wastewater from the nuclear power plant does not pose health risks. Early last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) granted Tokyo approval to release the treated water stored at the disabled power station. But Beijing and Hong Kong have expressed “strong opposition” to the discharge.

The centre also denied that the longer wait had anything to do with radiation inspection procedures, instead citing documentation, the amount of imports, and whether multiple shipments arrived at the same time as reasons for extended wait times.

The spokesperson also said that the centre deployed seven staffers to provide on-site support, adding that it would keep in contact with the industry and suggested that importers make use of refrigeration facilities at the airport’s cargo terminals if necessary.

It will also hold an online briefing this Wednesday to go through the import procedures.

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1881 Heritage and Eastpro Gallery are hosting an exhibition “Light Up,” featuring selected works by Hong Kong landscape photographer Carlo Yuen.

The exhibition, which runs until October 26, explores Yuen’s six-year journey of capturing Hong Kong’s unique landscapes.

His works showcase the beauty of iconic sites across the city, including Lion Rock, Kowloon Peak and Central’s International Financial Centre.

Yuen has won over 40 international photography awards in recent years, and is known as “Weatherman” for his ability to anticipate weather conditions, allowing him to capture short-lived moments that other lenses might miss.

The “Light Up” exhibition will be on display until October 26 at 1881 Heritage in Tsim Sha Tsui.

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Residents of Shek O and Big Wave Bay have praised the government for its swift action to reopen the only road to their villages after landslides triggered by last week’s record-breaking downpour cut them off.

The road to the southeastern coastal settlements was partially reopened last Saturday, less than two days after the downpour, although it was temporarily closed again on Thursday due to further heavy rains.

But the government is less popular among store owners and restaurant staff unsettled by an unrelated issue – frequent inspections in recent weeks by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD).

‘Prompt’ action to reopen road

A 60-year-old woman surnamed Lau said authorities had been responsive to the road collapse, adding that the situation had not been as dire as local media reported.

“The biggest problem was losing communications… but there was no shortage of fresh water and food,” Lau, a long-time Shek O resident, said in Cantonese. Local media had reported that parts of the village had suffered hampered internet and mobile phone service, a power blackout and a shortage of supplies last Friday.

The owner of a beachside store, who gave his surname as Yip, said panic did spread at first, especially among families with elderly people, but the government responded quickly to partially reopen Shek O Road. “We thought it [the repair work] would take weeks, no one expected the road to reopen on Saturday night,” Yip said in Cantonese.

Another store owner who refused to give his name also said he had not expected the road to reopen so soon.

“Full repairs could still take weeks to complete,” Yip said, adding that the government should consider building extra transport facilities in Shek O in case of a similar event in the future, such as a pier at the beach.

FEHD inspections upset businesses

But speaking to an HKFP reporter on Wednesday, store owners and restaurant staff expressed dismay at “more-than-frequent” and rigid inspections by FEHD’s hawker control officers in recent weeks, claiming the actions were disruptive to their everyday life.

FEHD officers have conducted five inspections in Shek O since August, an FEHD spokesperson told HKFP on Thursday.

Fong, a Shek O resident in his 70s and the owner of Fong Fong Store, said the rainstorm did not cause too much damage to his property. He raised the floor of his store after Super Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018 brought severe flooding to the village.

Fong said he has been more upset by what he called the constant and rigid inspections. Several store owners were equally irate.

One store owner, who gave her surname as Tsui, said she had decided to open at noon to avoid FEHD officers, who tended to inspect in the mornings. “[FEHD officers] would ask me to move my goods [into the store], but I was not obstructing anyone,” she said in Cantonese.

Yip, the beachside store owner and a second-generation resident, said it was common practice for store owners to display their goods on the side of the road to gain tourists’ attention. When FEHD officers inspected the area, store owners were required to keep the items strictly within their shops.

For restaurants without a proper license, the inspections could result in legal action.

One person has been prosecuted for operating an unlicensed food business in recent inspections in Shek O, the FEHD spokeperson told HKFP.

A woman, who refused to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the restaurent where she works had to go to court recently after an inspection, and the business was disrupted every time the officers arrived.

Cheung, 86, whose family has owned a restaurant in Shek O for decades, said they had struggled for years to get a licence.

Licensed restaurants like Shek O Thai and Cococabana were open on Wednesday and staff said they were unaffected by the inspections. Employees at most other restaurants declined to talk about the issue.

Yip said many restaurants in the village had been operated by local families for decades but it had been difficult for them to acquire licences.

He said the process involves the Lands Department, the Fire Services Department and the FEHD. Even then, “sometimes when a restaurant has met all regulatory requirements, they cannot get a licence because their land lease does not allow it.”

Under the Food Business Regulation, an operator of an unlicensed food premise could be fined up to HK$50,000 and jailed for up to six months.

Tensions with eateries

Recent enforcement actions against eateries in the city have stirred controversy and tension about whether such actions are reasonable.

In August, eateries in an industrial building in Kwun Tong were ordered by the Lands Department to close down. Critics said eateries in industrial buildings were catering to thousands of local workers and overly rigid enforcement did not serve the community.

In response, Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn, who oversees the Lands Department, cited a breach of land lease conditions and said the department would operate in accordance with the law, Inmedia reported.

“The FEHD will continue to take stringent enforcement actions against unlicensed food premises to safeguard food safety and public health,” the spokesperson said.

Asked how he himself felt about the recent inspections, Yip said he did not blame the officers concerned. “They are doing their job… but have you ever heard of someone who had food poisoning after eating in Shek O? I certainly haven’t.”

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A third property at an upmarket housing estate was found to have been fitted with a three-storey illegal structure, the Buildings Department has revealed, after a landslide triggered by record rains last week uncovered unauthorised works at two other houses at the estate.

Local media reported on Thursday evening that house 74 at Redhill Peninsula, a luxury estate overlooking Tai Tam Bay that was the scene of the landslide, had a three-storey illegal structure.

The basement floor had an area of 72 square metres, the middle floor 56 square metres, and the top floor 10.4 square metres. Part of a retaining wall near the slope had been torn down to accommodate the basement.

According to a provisional sales agreement listed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the property was registered as a company under the name Future Ocean Limited.

Search refused

Authorities confirmed on Thursday that house 74 had illegal structures after the occupant initially refused a search by Buildings Department personnel on Tuesday. The department, along with the Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD), then obtained a court warrant to conduct the inspection.

Authorities have ordered the occupant of house 74 to cordon off the illegal structure over safety concerns.

Earlier this week, houses 70 and 72 at Redhill Peninsula were found to have installed illegal structures including basements. The Lands Department has started remedial work at the Redhill Peninsula site.

Enforcement action

News of the third instance came as development policy think-tank Liber Research Community identified 173 instances of potential illegal occupation at luxury housing estates, in the form of unauthorised work such as backyards and swimming pools.

Liber’s Chan Kim-ching said those unauthorised works posed the same safety risks as the unauthorised works at Redhill Peninsula, which he said had affected the slope’s structural integrity, and was one of the factors that had caused the landslide.

Chief Executive John Lee on Tuesday vowed to take action against lease violations involving illegal structures, saying the government would “take action in accordance with the law,” including prosecuting and claiming costs from lawbreakers.

Development minister Bernadette Linn said on Wednesday that the Buildings Department and Lands Department would jointly launch large-scale inspections at Redhill Peninsula.

She said slope maintenance work would cost millions of dollars, and authorities would, within reason, recover costs from those responsible.

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More than 170 luxury private houses in Hong Kong are suspected of illegally occupying government land with swimming pools or other facilities, a development policy think-tank has found. The claim came days after a landslide uncovered unauthorised construction at an upmarket housing estate.

By analysing satellite imagery and government planning documents, Liber Research Community identified 173 instances of potential illegal occupation at luxury housing estates, in the form of unauthorised work such as backyards and swimming pools. The survey covered parts of Hong Kong where luxury estates were built.

“Many of them are situated at the seaside or the hillside, and carry the same safety risks as the unauthorised works at the Redhill Peninsula,” the report said, referring to a luxury housing estate overlooking Tai Tam Bay that was the scene of the landslide last week.

Public safety

Speaking on an RTHK programme Liber’s Chan Kim-ching said last week’s rainstorm had brought to light safety issues of which the public may not have been aware. “People used to think that the practice of building private backyards … was an issue of legality or rational use of land resources. But [the rainstorm] has revealed that it’s an issue of public safety,” he said.

House 72 at Redhill Peninsula was found to have an illegal basement and to have illegally removed part of a wall to install windows, the Buildings Department has said.

Next to it, House 70 was found to have illegal structures including a basement. House 74 was inspected on Tuesday morning after its owner earlier refused to let government personnel in, local media reported.

Chief Executive John Lee on Tuesday vowed to take action against lease violations involving illegal structures.

Lee said the government would “take action in accordance with the law,” including prosecuting and claiming costs from those responsible if they were found to have broken the law. The Lands Department has started remedial work at the Redhill Peninsula site.

Chan said unauthorised work had affected the slope’s structural integrity, and was one of the factors that caused the landslide.

‘Tip of the iceberg’

Chan said that 21 instances of alleged illegal land use at Redhill Peninsula identified by Liber was the “tip of the iceberg,” and several other estates had similar unauthorised work.

The Lands Department tightened regulations for building on government land in 2017, requiring occupants to apply for short-term tenancies, which Liber said the owners of the listed properties had not applied for.

Villa Rosa, another luxury estate uphill from Redhill Peninsula, had 13 instances of suspected illegal occupation, according to the group’s report. Villa Cecil on Mount Davis was found to have had a private pool partially on government land for over two decades.

Some properties listed in the report had spread beyond permitted boundaries and into the outskirts of country parks, the group said.

Liber urged authorities to investigate and take enforcement action against houses which encroached on government land.

Development minister Bernadette Linn said on Wednesday that the Buildings Department and Lands Department would jointly launch large-scale inspections at Redhill Peninsula. She said slope maintenance work would cost millions of dollars, and authorities would, within reason, recover costs from those responsible.

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Vehicular access to two Hong Kong coastal villages will resume from 9 pm on Thursday, the government has announced. Shek O and Big Way Bay were cut off from the city for a second time in a week due to a collapsed section of the road following historic rainfall.

A heavy downpour hit Hong Kong early on Thursday morning, causing the Observatory to issue its Red rainstorm warning signal and the Education Bureau to cancel many classes.

More than 50 millimetres of rain was recorded over eastern parts of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, Sha Tin and Tai Po, the Observatory said, with the Southern District Office announcing that “the recent collapse of Shek O Road near Lan Nai Wan expanded.”

The Red rainstorm warning was issued at 5.55 am, with the Observatory warning that further heavy rain could cause serious flooding and traffic disruption. It was replaced by the lower Amber warning signal at 10.30 am.

After allowing limited access on Shek O Road to red minibuses and government vehicles from noon, the Transport Department announced at 5.50 pm that light vehicles would be able to pass later on Thursday evening.

“After emergency repairs carried out by the Highways Department and the Civil Engineering and Development Department, one lane of the Shek O Road can be reopened to light vehicles, including red minibuses, at about 9pm today,” the Transport Department said. Drivers were advised to pay careful attention to traffic directions.

Residents of the coastal villages of Shek O and Big Wave Bay were cut off from the city for the second time in a week, after Thursday morning’s rainfall washed away emergency repair works along the only road providing access to the area.

Images showed red-and-white plastic hoarding set up around a collapsed section of the road caused by a landslide that occurred during record rainfall last Thursday night had disappeared.

“Relevant departments are inspecting the relevant locations and will carry out emergency repairs as soon as possible,” the Southern District Office said, adding that care teams had been mobilised to provide assistance to residents.

“For residents who have a pressing need to leave Shek O, the Government will assist them to leave urgently by the sea route,” the district office said.

HKFP has reached out to the Highways Department and Civil Engineering and Development Department for comment.

Speaking to HKFP last Saturday, Southern District Councillor Paul Zimmerman that issues surrounding drainage and infrastructure on Hong Kong’s old mountain roads, including Shek O Road, were long-standing. “They [have] very outdated drainage systems and very outdated road infrastructure,” have said.

A spokesperson from the Drainage Services Department told HKFP by phone on Thursday morning to wait for a response from the Highways Department and Civil Engineering and Development Department, and that they had no further comment.

The Education Bureau announced the suspension of schools at around 6 am, marking the third day of interrupted classes because of extreme weather since the school year began on September 1. “As the Red Rainstorm Warning Signal is now in force, classes of all AM schools and whole-day schools are suspended today,” it said.

Schools that offered afternoon classes would open as normal, the Education Bureau said soon after 11.30 am.

In a statement issued at 6 am, the Labour Department reminded employers to allow staff flexibility to work from home, if necessary, and consider the need to report for duty and early release.

“Employers should make prior work arrangements and contingency measures for staff. In drawing up and implementing the work arrangements, employers should give prime consideration to employees’ safety and the feasibility for employees to travel to and from their workplaces,” a department spokesperson said.

The Social Welfare Department advised people not to take children or family members to child care centres, centres providing after school care programmes, elderly services centres or day rehabilitation units.

“Heavy rain is expected to persist over the territory in the next couple of hours,” the Hong Kong Observatory said on Thursday morning. “Members of the public should be on the alert.”

Hong Kong has been subjected to heavy rainfall intermittently since last Thursday, when hourly rainfall of 158.1 millimetres was recorded, the highest since records began in 1884.

Speaking at an inter-departmental press conference last Friday to address the severe flooding and landslides caused by the historic downpour, Lee Lap-shun, the acting director of the Hong Kong Observatory, said the city had recorded over 600 millimetres of rainfall within 24 hours, equivalent to a quarter of its average annual rainfall. Tai Tam and Chai Wan experienced some of the heaviest downpours.

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Hong Kong’s wealthier districts will warm at a slower rate than its poorest areas, a recent research paper has found, leaving those living in low-income neighbourhoods at greater risk of exposure to heat considered dangerous to human survival.

Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Hong Kong, biological scientist Michael Boyle, explored the relationship between the median monthly salary of Hong Kong districts and their climate conditions. By dividing the city into 30 metre by 30 metre squares, and taking temperature and humidity data for each of those squares, Boyle was able to map climate conditions for every constituency in Hong Kong. 

“This facilitated making climate predictions for each individual voting ward,” Boyle, who is currently in the UK, told HKFP by email on Tuesday.

He found that areas with the lowest median monthly incomes of HK$11,000 to HK$12,000 – among them parts of Kowloon City, Sham Shui Po, Kwai Tsing, North District and Yuen Long – already experienced wet-bulb temperatures of up to 31.3 degrees Celsius. 

Wet-bulb temperatures combine temperature and humidity to evaluate how well humans can cool themselves by sweating. A wet-bulb temperature of 35 degrees is the threshold beyond which the human body is unable to cool itself through perspiration, representing what Boyle calls in his paper “a physiological limit to human survival.” 

The ambient temperature must reach 36.3 degrees at a relative humidity of 85 per cent, which is common in Hong Kong, to reach a wet-bulb temperature of 35 degrees. 

“Projecting into the future using global climate change models, the wealthiest districts will have roughly 30 years longer than less wealthy districts before temperatures that are considered dangerous to human survival are reached,” Boyle said by email. 

“Based on my findings, combinations of temperature and humidity considered dangerous to human survival may be experienced in Hong Kong as a normal part of the climate by the end of the century.” 

Hong Kong recently recorded its hottest summer since records began in 1884, and was subsequently pummelled by Super Typhoon Saola and record-breaking rainfall early this month. Climate experts have warned that extreme weather events, including extreme heat, will become more frequent going forward.

Boyle modelled three climate warming scenarios, ranging from least to most severe, to see how long it may take for wet-bulb temperatures to become an expected feature of Hong Kong’s summers. “This is different to a heat wave or random very hot days, which could occur much earlier,” he told HKFP.  

According to the most severe predictions, wet-bulb temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius could be commonplace in Hong Kong by the end of this century. Based on the least severe scenario, it would take until around 2180 to reach the same threshold. 

“Regardless of warming rate, the wealthiest districts would have at least another 25-30 years of thermal safety before experiencing the same harmful temperatures as less wealthy districts,” the paper, which had been accepted for publication by the journal Environmental Research Letters, read.  

Future proofing

Areas within the government’s Northern Metropolis development plan, which would see the creation of a “work-live-play” central business district near Hong Kong’s border with mainland China, were identified in Boyle’s paper as among those most vulnerable to extreme heat in the future.

By contrast, he noted that the proposed Kau Yi Chau Artificial Islands project would “likely be preferable” from a climate perspective “as they will be buffered from extreme temperatures for many decades in comparison to more continental northern regions.” However, Boyle did say that such reclamation projects came with “their own suite of environmental and economic issues.”

Responding to enquiries from HKFP, the Development Bureau said the Northern Metropolis would be built “with modern urban design and resilient infrastructure, allowing future population to better adapt to climate change.”

The bureau said that the planned tech hub within the area, the San Tin Technopole, would be planned according to the 15-minute city concept, “where residents’ needs can be mostly catered for within a 15-minute walk,” thus reducing “greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.”

Open space would also be incorporated, “providing plenty of space for tree planting, thereby helping moderate temperature,” the bureau added.

See also: What is Hong Kong’s San Tin Technopole and why is the planned tech hub controversial?

Mee Kam Ng, director of the Urban Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told HKFP that it was essential to work with nature when building climate-proofed cities to mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis on residents. 

“We have to try our best to have an ecosystem restoration mindset in our planning and development process. The natural conditions should always be the first thing that we consider when we initiate planning and development,” she said. 

Climate advocate and urban planner Chin Chin Lam said that when it came to Hong Kong’s poorest areas, urban renewal may be the answer to enhancing climate resilience.
“Because a lot of the poorest neighbourhoods in Hong Kong are also the oldest and the most high density,” she told HKFP by phone. “That includes Sham Shui Po, Kwun Tong, To Kwa Wan.”

To help cool these areas, Lam suggested “active greening and implementing water features… not only a park, but a nullah, a river, these are also important elements on top of urban renewal.”

According to Ng, it was essential to adopt a localised approach. “Climate-proofing a city is the best way to protect everyone… Planners should plan with the context and not apply hard standards disregarding the actual situations on the ground,” Ng said. 

Boyle, whose research found that tree coverage had less impact on lowering wet-bulb temperatures in Hong Kong than expected, agreed. “Tropical and subtropical cities have their own set of conditions that mean there is not a ‘one-size fits all; approach to mitigating urban temperatures globally,” he said by email.

He said the question of how to make Hong Kong cooler was “a difficult one,” but said he expected Hongkongers to adapt their behaviour, with public indoor spaces like malls being used by those who cannot afford to run their air conditioning through extreme heat. 

In some low-income areas, Lam said at-risk residents were already seeking refuge from extreme heat in fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s or Fairwood, “because they can’t afford air-con.”

“We need more heat shelters or just normal spaces for people to freely, without paying money, to take rest… that is something that the government should provide for poorer or older neighbourhoods,” Lam said, adding that they needed to be easily accessible for elderly residents with less mobility.

Last year, Lam lobbied Sham Shui Po District Council, the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau and the Hong Kong Observatory to ask for the implementation of a system that would measure the microclimate of high-risk neighbourhoods.

“They feel heat differently than other neighbourhoods, the local temperature in Sham Shui Po would be hotter than other places,” Lam said, meaning that it may need temporary heat shelters even if the rest of the city did not. “Under the current system, it’s a one-city fits all,” she said.

The Observatory responded to Lam’s request and said they would explore having more heat measurements to better reflect the actual conditions in the city.

Another “big issue” identified by Lam and Boyle was those who work outdoors, and who were at greater risk of exposure to extreme heat.

“They are also more likely to live in less affluent areas where the temperature is already higher,” Boyle said. “There needs to be a stronger legislation to protect these people from harmful conditions in their workplaces.” 

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The government will take action after properties in luxury estate Redhill Peninsula were found to have illegal structures, Hong Kong leader John Lee has said. His comment came after some alterations came to light following a landslide triggered by record rains.

Speaking to the press ahead of his meeting with the Executive Council on Tuesday, Lee said authorities would prioritise ensuring the stability of the slope at Redhill Peninsula and the safety of residents.

Located southern Hong Kong island, Redhill Peninsula is a private housing estate overlooking Tai Tam Bay. It was the site of a landslide after torrential rains hit the city from Thursday night, forcing the evacuation of residents in one of the houses after the government said there was “clear danger.”

Lee also said the government would “take action in accordance with the law,” including prosecuting and claiming costs from those responsible if they were found to have broken the law, he added.

“Those who need to be prosecuted will be prosecuted, and structures that have to be demolished will be demolished,” Lee said on Tuesday, speaking in Cantonese.

Necessary enforcement

Hong Kong was hit by a rainstorm that brought flash floods and landslides to the city on Thursday night and Friday. The storm prompted authorities to issue the Black rainstorm warning – the highest rainstorm alert – for a record-breaking 16 hours.

Authorities said 158.1 millimetres of rainfall was recorded by the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) in the hour after the warning was raised, a record high.

Lee’s remarks came after the city’s development minister Bernadette Linn said at a cross-department press conference that luxury properties at Redhill Peninsula had violated lease terms and unlawfully occupied government land.

House 72 – from which residents were evacuated – was found to have an illegal basement and to have illegally removed part of a wall to install windows, the Buildings Department said according to RTHK.

Next to it, House 70 was found to have illegal structures including a basement. House 74 was inspected on Tuesday morning after its owner earlier refused to let government personnel in, local media reported.

Linn said the government would proceed with “necessary enforcement against the relevant breaches” once the slope had been stabilised.

While all rainstorm signals were lifted on late Friday afternoon, occasional heavy rain has continued to batter the city.

On Monday morning, the HKO reported rainfall in Sai Kung measuring more than 100 millimetres in an hour, a day after Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan assured residents that they “should have no problems going back to school or work.”

Tseung Kwan O and Kwun Tong also saw several reports of flooding that triggered road closures, including on main thoroughfares such as Kwun Tong Road and Tseung Kwan O Road.

“It is important for us to know that because of global warming, the frequency of sudden and extreme weather condition may come more often than before,” Lee said at the Tuesday press conference.

The chief executive referred to the incidents as floods. His comment came after acting director of the Drainage Services Department (DSD) Chui Si-kay told reporters on Monday that those were not flooding cases, but rather, “localised water accumulation.”

Asked whether authorities would improve the city’s drainage systems, Lee said that there were different reasons for flooding, including sudden downpours in a specific area or blocked drains.

He added that the DSD would prioritise areas with a high risk of flooding when carrying out improvement works.

Local farmers and fishermen who suffered serious losses will be eligible to apply for financial assistance from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, Lee added.

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