18
REVIEW
assistance from the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association, or by the Public Works Department out of general revenue.
In some parts of the New Territories farmers can derive great benefit from storage reservoirs which enable them to grow a winter crop of vegetables between successive rice seasons. The first two reservoirs of this kind were completed under the Colonial Develop- ment & Welfare scheme in 1957 at a cost of $1,150,000. Between them they store 50 million gallons, and they are joined by a pipeline so that the best use may be made of available resources by switching water from one to the other.
Plans for four more reservoirs to serve the Pat Heung area were well advanced when they were absorbed into the design and construction of the northern catchwaters for the Tai Lam reservoir. In Pat Heung the villagers had for some years resented the construction of a domestic water intake at Sek Kong to supply the Army camp. On top of this, they learned that Government was proposing to construct catchwaters across every stream that fed their fields and to take the water into the Tai Lam reservoir for urban consumption. It was necessary at one stage to suspend work on the catchwaters for a time until the District Administra- tion_could allay their fears and suspicions. The full scheme for the catchwaters included provision for a considerable improvement in the irrigation of the fields below. This sounds odd, and the villagers did not at first believe it. But the truth is that catchwaters, by carrying away surplus summer rainfall to the storage reservoirs, reduce extensive flooding of low-lying agricultural land at times when the rain itself is sufficient for irrigation. On the other hand, during the dry winter months, all the water in the hillside streams can be made available to agriculture through by-pass pipes without any appreciable loss to urban supplies. The Tai Lam catchwater scheme went much further than this. It included the reconstruction in concrete of all irrigation dams and channels connected with any stream crossing the catchwaters. Some 90 dams and 100,000 feet of channelling were reconstructed in this way, and the four new reservoirs which were previously under consideration were eventually included in the plan. The district administration spent much time and effort on explaining to the villagers the benefits from this catchwater and several months elapsed before work could be resumed. But it was time well spent, for much was