Shing Mun River
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ShaTin-ShingMunRiver-EarlyStageOfDevelopment.jpg
Shing Mun River (Traditional Chinese: 城門河) is a river in Sha Tin, Hong Kong, China.
The original Shing Mun River comes from Needle Hill, and flows into the former Sha Tin Hoi, a shallow bay. When the Sha Tin Hoi is reclamed and turned to a new town, the Shing Mun River is extended through an 7km long, 200m wide artificial channel in the middle of the area and flows into Tolo Harbour. Other rivers flowing into Sha Tin Hoi are now tributaries of Shing Mun River, or into one of its nullahs.
The Shing Mun River channel runs from the Tai Wai area, through the Sha Tin town centre to the Tolo Harbour. It has three main tributaries, namely Tai Wai Nullah, Fo Tan Nullah and Siu Lek Yuen Nullah. Along the Shing Mun River are high-rise residential, commercial and industrial buildings with numerous village type developments scattered around. Several bridges are built to connect the two sides of the Shing Mun River.
Although the Shing Mun River is primarily designed for the drainage of stormwater from Sha Tin with a catchment area of 37kmē, it is also a popular place for recreational users such as rowers, riverside walkers and cyclists.
The Shing Mun River had once been heavily polluted from the indiscriminate discharges from livestock, industrial, commercial and domestic sources. The total organic pollution load from these discharges amount to a population equivalent of 160,000 in the 1980s. At that time, there was hardly any living creatures found in the river.
The water quality of Shing Mun River has improved from bad to good in terms of Water Quality Index since 1993. Natural habitat including fishes and invertebrates has also reappeared in the Shing Mun River.
An artificial river bank was built along a 250-metre section near Man Lai Court, where there are relatively severe sediment accumulations and odour problems.