In-To Tung Chung River, launched in 2018, is a project on river conservation that invites the public to appreciate, learn about and work on protecting Tung Chung River. We advocate the concept of "holistic river" and river basin management in an effort to preserve the pristine Tung Chung River and its "Ecosystem Services".
The Project is divided into two phases. The first phase focused on public participation through two activities: Mangroves Search and Stream Search. Members of the public were trained to become Citizen Scientists and help build up the ecological database of Tung Chung River for conservation purposes. Besides, the public got to explore Tung Chung ecology through a series of ecological guided tours and workshops. To date 390 Citizen Scientists have been trained and over 270 people have participated in our guided tours and workshops.
In addition, we have set up an interflow platform for the public and the government. On one hand, it allows the public to learn more about the impacts of Tung Chung New Town Extension on Tung Chung River and the related conservation measures; on the other hand, the public is encouraged to express their views on the matters and participate in the conservation of their community environment. Meanwhile, public opinions on the conservation measures were collected through questionnaire surveys which were submitted to the officials. So far three annual inter-departmental interflows and four questionnaire surveys on topics such as “River Park design and construction” and “Ecotourism development in Tung Chung” have been organized.
The second phase started in 2021. As funding for Tung Chung New Town Extension was approved by the Finance Committee of the HKSAR Legislative Council, site formation and infrastructure works will begin soon. In this phase of our Project, surveys on ecology and water quality will be the focus. Regular surveys and monitoring of Tung Chung River Basin, future River Park site and water catchment of Tung Chung River set by the Water Supplies Department will be carried out. The results will be used to investigate the ecological impacts of Tung Chung New Town Extension and Tung Chung Valley works, as well as the conservation effectiveness of the first ever River Park in Hong Kong.