Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.

Before my speech, I would like to

do some rebuttals.
(rebuttals)
Today, we are going to debate on the motion—reclamation is the best
solution of Hong Kong’s problem of land, and I strongly oppose this
motion. Our team case is that reclamation cannot solve SHORT TERM
housing problems and will cause LONG TERM harm. I will talk aboutthe
disadvantages of reclamation in short term development, the 2nd speaker
will talk about the harms of reclamation in a long run and explain some
of the better choices of alternatives, and our 3 rd speaker will conclude
our case.
Why do we need reclamation? Because in Hong Kong, we are facing
land shortage and people need to create land to build residential
buildings. However, reclamation is not the best short-term solution
because it cannot create new land for development immediately. Urgent
housing problem in Hong Kong cannot be solved by the time-consuming
reclamation. Reclamation needs several years for the newly reclaimed
land to consolidate, to make the soil layer hard enough to support the
buildings above. Moreover, reclamation includes detailed planning and
long period of mass construction. For example, reclamation in the
Victoria Harbor has lasted for nearly ten years, just to build highways
above it; reclamation in just Central and Wan Chai has been planned and
constructed since 1990 and it hasn’t been finished yet. All these above
shows that reclamation wastes a lot of time, so it is not the best solution
of the urging land problems in Hong Kong.
Also, protests from citizens are increasing. Usually proposals of
reclamation is banned and challenged in the Legislative Council. There is
huge difficulty before reclamation can start. Meanwhile, the demand of
new land is extremely urgent so the government cannot afford such slow
speed in reclaiming the sea. For the timing and the social resentment
problems, reclamation is not the best short-term solution to the urging
housing problems.
Our second speaker will continue to talk about the harms in the long
run, mainly on environmental level. So today’s motion must and will fall,
thank you.