Jenny Quinton's two children once swam and paddled in the Wang Tong stream, a leafy backwater tucked away behind bustling Silvermine Bay.
Today, their splash pool has been transformed into a concrete storm drain, with it having gone the aquatic life and vegetation bordering the meandering stream, whose tranquillity attracted people to set up home nearby.
The scenic setting has been destroyed by a $10 million river training project, one of hundreds of schemes under the Rural Planning and Improvement Strategy (RPIS) minor works programme which spent $280 million last year on improvements in the New Territories and outlying islands.
Ms Quinton is not impressed. 'It is going to be so ugly. The river is completely and utterly disgusting,' she said.
Arguments over Wang Tong caused a stir in the Mui Wo community late last year, but it was not an isolated botched job. In 1996 the Government concreted over - or channelised in engineering jargon - 38 sections of streams and rivers throughout the territory.
Wang Tong served to highlight increasing concerns by environmentalists, landscape engineers and ecologists that channelisation was ruining some of Hong Kong's most ecologically diverse habitats.
Of course, the Government was not spending millions of taxpayers' dollars for the fun of slathering concrete over pristine watercourses. The Home Affairs Department, which runs the RPIS, says river training is a necessary flood control measure.