REVIEW
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of a gamble since, if the tests were unsuccessful, about $1,000,000 would have been expended in vain, in addition to about $2.5 million on the experiment itself; this is a measure of the Colony's need at that time. Readers will recall that in spring of 1956, supplies from the mains had been cut down to two and a half hours every second day and although the Tai Lam reservoir came into use in 1957, both the population and the consumption of water were rising at an alarming rate. The success of the resettlement pro- gramme and other housing projects had improved the overall stand- ard of domestic accommodation in a striking way. Better housing means more taps in the home (often taps where there had been none before) and more taps mean the consumption of more water.
So work went ahead at Shek Pik on construction of offices, a camp for workmen, housing for the engineering staff and a police station. A jeep track opened up new access. This road was sub- sequently surfaced the whole way from Silver Mine Bay to Shek Pik, a distance of ten miles, and has become such a busy thoroughfare that it is now being double tracked. Even while this experiment was still in progress, the Public Works Department was turning its mind towards other possible sources of supply. The Director was convinced that Shek Pik alone would not solve the Colony's water problem and had begun investigating the possibility of converting two inlets of the sea, Plover Cove and Hebe Haven, into fresh water lakes. This startling possibility will be referred to later. Even the distillation of sea water, already considered and rejected on grounds of cost both before and in the early years after the war, was being re-examined.
It was a great relief to Hong Kong when the Consultants were able to report in May 1958 that the experiment at Shek Pik was a complete success. Government immediately decided to carry on with the grout curtain before taking the formal decision to proceed with the whole Shek Pik project, and to start certain other preliminary works upon which the staff and equipment could be usefully employed.
The Consulting Engineers' final report and recommendations were received in August 1958, and on 1st October of that year Finance Committee approved the revised estimate of $220 million, of which $148.36 million was for work to be carried out by the Consultants. The original estimate of $150 million had not