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Hong Kong bird reserve threatened by pollution

An important nature reserve for migratory birds in Hong Kong is being increasingly polluted by industrial and organic waste flushed down from southern China, Reuters reported a leading green group as saying on Tuesday.
"The kind of pollution problems we’re getting at Mai Po is a common one, right throughout China where you’ve got this very rapid urbanisation," said Lew Young, manager of the WWF-run Mai Po nature reserve.
Mai Po and its lush wetlands straddle Shenzhen and Hong Kong and have for decades been an important wintering point for tens of thousands of waterbirds, including critically endangered species such as the black-face spoonbill.
Untreated domestic sewage flushed into Deep Bay along storm drains, livestock waste from pig and chicken farms and industrial pollution from factories in the Pearl River Delta are disrupting the precarious ecological balance in Mai Po.
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photo by Second Yip