QUESTION:
}
So there will never be a shortage of
+
drinking water?
SIR DAVID TRENCH:
If it does not rain for the
KOR
but the
next two years and we do not get any from China, certainly,
but one has a right to expect some rainfall in the summer
months and indeed there is a typhoon now, Anita, some
200 miles away. But the point about cutting off the
water in this way is not that it reduces the consumption
by people it does to a considerable extent
real point is, you do not get the losses from the
distribution system in Hong Kong. The plant is modern
so the losses are around 20-25 per cent, which just leaks
away; but in an old distribution system like this I de
not know what the water losses in London are, but if they
are less than 40 per cent I would be surprised.
When you
cut it off you save a lot.
QUESTION:
What you are saying is, even if
the water is cut off from China, Hong Kong can cope, and
even if there is rationing it is not a question of hardship?
Yes, provided we do not
SIR DAVID TRENCH:
get a drought and provided we get reasonable rainfall,
but of course we have not had any rain really for a
year. The 12th of June last year we had a fearful
rainstorm with 25 inches of rain in a matter of hours,
and landslides all over the island, and no rain since.
The trouble with the weather in Hong Kong is, it has no
dann sense of proportion.
QUESTION: Do you mean Hong Kong can cope
indefinitely with four hours rationing?
SIR DAVID TRENCH: Till the wet season.
If
!
there was a dry season and no water from China there
would be no doubt about it.
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}