By Mr Benjamin Y B LAM 
An environmental seminar on Transformation of the Shing Mun River was held on 20 May 2005. The seminar was jointly organised by the AMC, YMC and CV Division. This talk was divided into two parts. In the first part, Mr T S Tsui, Engineer of the Civil Engineering and Development Department, gave information on the previous problems at Shing Mun River, the traditional method of tackling the problems, the total solution of the problems and the technical background of bioremediation. The Shing Mun River was built in the 1970's when most of the pollution came from domestic homes, farms and industries. The main problems were odor from sediments, the siltation which gave a poor appearance and poor water quality of the river. To overcome these problems, a combined method which consists of the followings was used:
- Dredging to avoid sediment exposure and maintain hydraulic capacities
- Civil works to trap or prevent siltation on river banks
- Granite facing, plantation and viewing platforms on river embankment to enhance aesthetic quality
- Floating debris booms to trap floating debris for easier collection and disposal
- Oil and grease booms at box culverts to trap and absorb oil and grease
- In-situ bioremediation to treat malodorous sediments for acute and chronic odor control

In the second part, Mr Louis Chan, Director of the Organic Waste Technologies (HK) Limited talked about the bioremediation and its effectiveness. The combined method and the in-situ remediation with the injection of calcium nitrate solution can help to control the odor problems and improve the water quality. The work of environmental improvement had been carried out in two phases. The first phase is from May 2001 to January 2003 (20 months) with 144,000 cu m of dredging and 25 hectares of bioremediation. The second phase is from May 2003 to May 2006 (36 months) with 110,000 cu m of dredging, 23 hectares of bioremediation. The treatment was found to be effective showing no harm to the environment, fast control of odor, sustainability of odor control and improvement in water qualities with the combined method.

Finally, representatives from the AMC, YMC and IT Division gave a vote of thanks to the speakers for sharing their experience and informative presentation. For the presentation, please refer to the website at http:/hkieamc.webhost.com.hk for more details.