CIVIL ENGINEERING AND PUBLIC WORKS
EAST RIVER PROJECT
T
Kwangtung push ahead with scheme which will supply Hong Kong with 15,000 million gallons of water a year
HE SEALING of a sea water inlet at Plover Cove in the New Terri- tories to create a vast artificial lake retaining 30,000 million gallons of water will be the next major step in Hong Kong's eternal fight against shortage of water.
But it will be five years before the full effects of this scheme are felt. Meanwhile the Colony's water needs increase by 13 per cent a year.
To meet these needs Hong Kong Government in April last year signed an agreement with the People's Republic of Kwangtung Province, under which a minimum of 15,000 million gallons of water will be piped annually into the Colony.
For their part the Kwangtung Authorities are striving to complete the vast East River project from which the supply will be extracted. Entailing reversing the course of a river and, by a series of dams, sluice gates and pumping stations, making it flow uphill towards its source, East River vies in imaginative con- ception with Plover Cove.
The map on page 69 shows how the Yen Tien River flows north east from the Yen Tien reservoir which lies just north of the Shum Chun reservoir. The Yen Tien is joined by the Kuan Yang River at Tang Tou Hsia to form the Shih Ma (Stone Horse) River which continues north- wards until it flows into the East River near Chiao Tou about 70 kilometres north of Hong Kong.
The
scheme involves pumping water from the East River into the mouth of its tributary, the Stone Horse River and, controlled by diversion works and sluice gates, up through two artificial canals, through the Mu Cha Lake and into the channel of the East River again, just above the first major regulating dam at Chi Ling. This will be done by two pumping stations at Chiao Tou and at Szu Ma, the first housing six pumps and the second seven.
Once in the channel of the Stone Horse River. the water will be pumped southwards up the hills into the Yen Tien River until it reaches the highest point of the scheme at Yen Tien reservoir. From there it will run due south along an artificial canal until it enters the channel of yet another river, the Sa Wan, which flows into Shum Chun re- servoir. From there it will be fed by pipeline to the Hong Kong frontier.
Altogether six large regulating dams, eight major pumping stations
Far East Architect & Builder February, 1965
Construction proceeding at Sa Ling, one of the projects six large régulating dams
and 16 kilometres of artificial canals are being built along the course of the scheme, which covers a total length of 83 kilometres.
The dams will create a series of reservoirs along the course of the
Regulating gate bays on the Tang Tou Hsia dam
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