The Hong Kong government has done much to attract tourists, particularly from the mainland. The government can claim a big share of the credit for bringing Disneyland to Hong Kong and refreshing the image of Ocean Park. Both of these theme parks have remained a significant draw to mainland visitors.

Tourism is important. It is a major contributor to the vitality of Hong Kong's service-oriented economy. The more we admire and support government efforts to promote the tourism industry, the more we wonder why it has willingly allowed the destruction of what many of us consider as one of Hong Kong's greatest assets: our harbor.

Of course, our city was built on large tracts of landfills on both sides of the harbor. The places we are familiar with, Central, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay on Hong Kong island and Tsim Sha Tsui and Yau Ma Ti on the Kowloon Peninsula, sit on reclaimed land. There is never enough land in Hong Kong. But with our efficient and extensive public transportation network, we should be looking elsewhere for development potential rather than squeezing our harbor for that extra square mile of real estate.

As it is now, our harbor is so narrow that it looks more like a strait of choppy waters than a safe haven that has offered protection to seafarers since the days of the clippers and steamboats. The government has done a creditable job of clearing the harbor of the city's discharge. But some of its recent projects that required further reclamation and the removal of several familiar landmarks on the previous waterfront have stirred a storm of public protests.

To alleviate public concern about what was perceived by some conservationists as a wanton destruction of the harbor, the government earlier established the Harbourfront Enhancement Committee to oversee developments in the vicinity of the harbor. That committee was replaced last week by the Harbourfront Commission reputed to be a more powerful agency, whose members include the secretary for development Carrie Lam.

The new commission, according to its chairman Nicholas Brooke, is empowered to take a leading role in the planning and implementing of projects on the harbor front. There are at least 22 such projects identified by the commission, 15 of which will be completed by 2015.

It's not clear how much land will need to be reclaimed from the harbor to accommodate these projects. Hopefully, not one square inch of space from the harbor will be needed. Instead of setting up this commission, the government really should simply declare a moratorium on the reclamation of land from our harbor.

For many Hong Kong people, the harbor is a safe haven of the soul. Few things we can do in Hong Kong will lift our spirits better than taking a stroll along the water front.

But reclamation has left us with little choice but that chintzy stretch of walkway which they have called the avenue of stars by the water in Kowloon East. It's a walk we native Hong Kong people try to avoid.

(HK Edition 07/06/2010 page2)