A few weeks ago, a woman in Tin Shui Wan, after throwing 2 children from the 24th floor of her flat, leaped to her death. This tragic suicide case attracted public attention. It even made one councilor putting forward a motion debate in the Legislative Council. The people of Tin Shui Wai suddenly become a major concern of the public. Many academics have written tons of materials and putting forward suggestions with the aims to address and to solve the problems of Tin Shui Wai. To me, all these sound very familiar, because this has happened numerous times in the past few years. The tragic case of Tin Shui Wai seems to never end.
In the past few years, every time there is a suicide case or family violence report, they seemed to be connected to Tin Shui Wai. Some people even call Tin Shui Wai the “ City of Sadness ” . Unfortunately, there is something more tragic than the recent tragic case. If one follows the Tin Shui Wai problem closely, tragic case seems to be a frequent event, sometimes in a weekly basis. It just happens again and again unceasingly.
In the past seven years, I raised the problem of Tin Shui Wai in the Legislative Council numerous times. The Administration did not pay much attention to the suggestion that the Government should do more to those who are in need of assistance. Surprisingly, even a lot of councilors did not show any interest in understanding the seriousness of the problem. Perhaps that is human nature. It needs major event or major tragedy to attract their attention. I hope this time it works, and this tragic case is able to bring some changes in public attitude and government policy towards Tin Shui wai.
The tragedy in Tin Shui Wai doesn ’ t occur by accident. There are three basic reasons for Tin Shui Wai to have so many problems. Firstly it is the planning problem. The second is the special population composition, and thirdly, it is related to government policy.
For the planning problem, Tin Shui Wai is an over planned community. For the commercial properties, there are only two owners in all of Tin Shui Wai commercial properties. They are Cheung Kong Holdings and the Link. All the stores in the shopping centres are designated for certain usage and one cannot create any new business or new kinds of shop other than those being decided by these two owners. The commercial rent is extremely high. For a small vegetable stall in the market, you have to pay more than 30,000 dollars a month for the rent. Because of the high rent, the food in Tin Shui Wai is more expensive than the other new town.
Other than estate management and the business in the shopping centre, there are no other industrial and economic activities in Tin Shui Wai. The lack of employment is a serious problem. The resident in Tin Shui Wai has to go out of Tin Shui Wai to gain employment, and the high transportation cost creates great financial pressure to a lot of low income workers. The salary level of many Tin Shui Wai residents is quite low. One of the salient features of Tin Shui Wai is that more than 80% of population are living in public housing estate, and the vast majority of them are semi-skilled or unskilled labor with low educational level. Many of the heads of the household are above 45 years old, and have great difficulty to find employment. It is not unusual to find in the public housing estate in Tin Shui Wai that more than 25% of the households rely on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance.
Tin Shui Wai is isolated from the rest of Hong Kong and residents need to go for a long distance to reach the urban area. The high transportation cost discourages the resident to go into town for visit or for enjoyment. Because of their low income, many of the residents tend to stay in Tin Shui Wai, and many of them are forced to live in social isolation.
The other problem that affects the way of life of the people of Tin Shui Wai is the lack of community and recreation facilities. If comparing with other districts, the facilities in Tin Shui Wai is very minimal. For example there are 8 sport centres in Kwun Tong, but only 2 sport centres in Tin Shui Wai. There are 12 indoor basketball courts in Kwung Tong, but there are only 2 in Tin Shui Wai. There are 38 outdoor basketball courts in Kowloon City, but there are only two in Tin Shui Wai. There are 3 swimming pools in Eastern District, but there is only one in Tin Shui Wai. There are 26 mini-soccer pitches in Kwun Tong, but there is none in Tin Shui Wai.
One can see that there is serious shortage in Tin Shui Wai. The reason for Tin Shui Wai ’ s lack of facilities is poor planning and the government ’ s inaction for numerous years. It was only in the past couple of years that the government finally became more alert to the needs of the resident and began to speed up some of the projects. But the situation is far from satisfactory. If you look at the potential capital works items of the Government for 2007-08, the government plans to spend 70 billion dollars on 101project, but Tin Shui Wai has only been allocated one school redevelopment project. The government is still doing very little to improve the shortage of facility in Tin Shui Wai. How can you expect the living condition in Tin Shui Wai to improve ?
I believe the problem in Tin Shui Wai is extremely serious if the government still refuses to do something more and drastic, I believe more tragedies will continue to happen. I think that the government should speed up public work project, including providing funds for the building of the medical complex and recreation facilities. The government should increase the CSSA and the Old Age Allowance, and provide more recreation and social programs for the residents, so that the life of the residents can be improved.
Most importantly, I think that the government should use the land adjacent to Tin Shui Wai to facilitate economic development, such as using the land for hotel and business development. The government can even build more departmental headquarters or offices in or around Tin Shui Wai, so that it can help to create more employment opportunity.
Those lands adjacent in Tin Shui Wai are mainly abandoned farmland or are lands improperly used for container storage. However, the majority of these lands are left idle and unused. If these lands can be rezoned and can be used for tourism and economic development, it will enhance the land value and can create employment opportunity for the resident of Tin Shui Wai. If this can be done, it will drastically change the overall image of Tin Shui Wai.
I believe with this change, the overall situation in Tin Shui Wai can be improved. I do hope that the government and the society as a whole can finally identify and accept that there are serious problems in Tin Shui Wai, and are committed to find a way to resolve these problems so that tragic case can be prevented.
