Professor Chack-fan Lee: From Water Resources Management to Life Enrichment
08/18/2020 - 18:00
In the face of social upheaval last year, Covid-19 pandemic and the recent political and economic turbulence, the prospect of Hong Kong has been shrouded with uncertainties. The Our Hong Kong Foundation (OHKF) today organised the seventh session of ‘INSIGHT FORUM’ with Professor Chack-fan Lee, President of the Chu Hai College of Higher Education, and a Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, who shared his profound insights on life enrichment, his experience in water resources management in China over the past 30 years, and his meticulous scholarship in the field of engineering.
Since the 1980s, Professor Chack-fan Lee has participated in a wide array of water resources engineering projects on the Chinese mainland, while witnessing the implementation of revegetation and “releasing farmland to forest” policies. Particularly, recent adoption of advanced technologies, including minimal invasive tree planting and unmanned aerial seeding, have helped rejuvenate forest landscapes. Against a background that China’s flood control engineering systems in seven major river basins have already taken shape, Professor Lee pointed to the Three Gorges Dam Project, in which he had been closely involved, and which has effectively protected the downstream cities of Yangtze River.
Landslides which had occurred frequently in Hong Kong in the 20th century have largely ceased to be an issue of grave damage and casualties, thanks to the soil nailing and slope greening endeavours spearheaded by Professor Lee and his research team at the University of Hong Kong since the mid-90s, with tens of thousands of slopes re-engineered. Similar adoptions were evident on the Chinese mainland and overseas. Professor Lee hailed the experience of the Drainage Services Department of the HKSAR government in constructing drainage tunnels, setting exemplary standards for many mainland cities in reinforcing their drainage capacity against floods.
Quoting from Professor Jao Tsung-I, a leading China studies and Chinese arts scholar, on the essences of academic thoughts: diligence, dedication and innovation, Professor Lee encouraged Hong Kong people to focus on one mind without distraction. Referring to The Heart Sutra, Professor Lee advised Hong Kong people to tackle problems actively and calmly, in good times or bad. He also quoted the Four Noble Truths, noting the key to solving problems is to identify them and tackle them at their roots.
