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Environmental gem emerges from a blot on the Lamma
landscape
1. Environmental gem emerges from a blot on the Lamma landscape
SCMP,
23 September 2002 The
Lamma Quarry, which was worked for 17 years, has been transformed after a six-year
rehabilitation project, the company that mined the site said. A media tour of
the quarry found that it is home to 15 species of dragonflies, swallows and other
birds, and up to 30 types of plants and flowers. It has three landscaped woodlands,
a lake island and falcon nests. The quarry, mined by the Shui On Company, was
opened in 1978 opposite Sok Kwu Wan - Picnic Bay in English - one of the island's
most scenic points. The original 126-metre hill was quarried down to a crest of
66 metres. The quarry closed in 1995, after the government controversially extended
its mining lease for a further two years in 1993. The rehabilitation project was
the largest undertaken to date in the SAR, and was completed last December. Shui
On's executive director, John Leich, said: "The main theme of the project
was to transform the degraded landscape into a useful site with a natural environment
attractive to flora and fauna. "The rehabilitated area now blends in with
the surrounding natural environment and has attracted wildlife such as bamboo
snakes and egrets and pink dolphins." The rehabilitation of Lamma Quarry
was planned in 1992 and the work began three years later. The restored hills are
90 metres high and blend in with the surrounding landscape. A six-metre-deep lake
with a small, green islet dissecting it has been created. Environmentalists were
angered in 1993 when the government granted a two-year extension for the mining
of building aggregate at the quarry, which was due to close at the end of that
year. 
Now
you see it, now you don't: The Lamma Quarry as it was when Shui On was
extracting aggregate from the site, and how it looks today after six years of
nature rehabilitation work. SCMP photo |  |
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