10
REVIEW
The waterworks had entered the decade with resources of 24,850 acres of catchment and 10,500 million gallons of storage capacity. The final catchwaters of the Tai Lam Chung scheme were almost completed, work was in full swing on the Shek Pik scheme, and pre- liminary work had begun on the Plover Cove scheme. But memories are still vivid of the severe drought of 1963-4, when consumption had to be reduced to 46 million gallons a day, and for almost a year, while water was imported from the Pearl River estuary in a fleet of hired oil tankers, Hong Kong suffered a supply of only four hours every fourth day for all domestic purposes, and industrial users were hurt in varying degrees.
Work continued on Plover Cove and the Chinese authorities com- pleted the impressive and virtually drought-proof East River supply scheme, signing a new agreement to increase the supply from 5,000 million gallons to 15,000 million gallons a year from 1965. Even so, a Water Resources Survey, begun in 1965 and completed in 1968, after analysing demand trends, still showed the need for vast addi- tional resources. Plover Cove reservoir is being enlarged to 50,000 million gallons by raising the level of the dam and a new 60,000- million-gallon reservoir scheme at High Island is in progress. Work began in 1971 on the design of a desalting plant capable of produc- ing 40 million gallons a day and a study and report were completed on future desalting, combined with power generation, offering co- operative economies. Meanwhile storage capacity at the end of the decade amounted to 54,000 million gallons with resources of 70,000 acres of catchment to meet an estimated daily demand of 181 million gallons a day.
Like water, electricity consumption is an infallible indicator of industrial and social advance. Two new major generating stations were commissioned during the same period. Electricity consumption increased from 1,327 million kW hours in 1961 to 4,891 million kW hours in 1971, and this is a compound rate of growth of 11.4 per cent.
There has been a dramatic growth in air traffic passing through Hong Kong, which reflects not only the breaking down of the age- old barriers of language, mountain range and water between nations, but Hong Kong's own importance in the new open world. From slightly over 14,000 in 1961, aircraft movements increased three and a half times to almost 49,000 in 1971. The planes also grew in size. About 500,000 passengers passed through the airport at the begin- ning of the decade, by 1971 this figure had increased to 2.4 million. The passenger terminal building, opened in 1962, had to be modified and extended three times during the last six years. The terminal,