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LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES
Works Materials Testing Laboratories. Materials testing contracts were let to deal with the excess workload.
Land Development
Most of Hong Kong Island's development is concentrated on a narrow strip of flat land to the north. With the remainder of the land being generally hilly and unsuitable for construction work, the only way to provide additional areas for development on the island is to reclaim land from the sea. In the urban areas the responsibility for carrying out such reclamation projects lies with the Civil Engineering Office of the Engineering Develop- ment Department.
During the year, 20 hectares of land were gained in this way for developments such as the Mass Transit Railway Island Line, roads, a sewage treatment plant, a wholesale fish market and general urban development. On Ap Lei Chau, 1.5 hectares of land were reclaimed for boatyards and a coastal road. To the west of the densely populated Kowloon peninsula, four hectares of land were reclaimed for construction of new wholesale vegetable and fish markets and for industrial use. In the eastern New Territories, a further five-hectare area of land was formed for the Tai Po Industrial Estate.
In the continuing quest for more usable flat land, studies were conducted to investigate the feasibility of further reclamation in Victoria Harbour for urban development, develop- ment in the northern and eastern parts of Lantau Island, and in the northeastern and northwestern New Territories.
Port Works
The construction of sea walls and breakwaters for cargo handling areas, typhoon shelters and the containment of reclamation is fundamental to the development of the marine infrastructure. And, due to the large and expanding volume of sea traffic in the territory, the demand for new marine facilities continued to increase during 1983. Work by the Civil Engineering Office of the Engineering Development Department was progressing at nine locations on almost 5.5 kilometres of seawall and breakwaters, mainly on the north shore of Hong Kong Island.
In addition, the construction of 11 piers throughout the territory was in progress: of these two were started, two continued from the previous year and seven were completed. They included four to serve passenger or vehicular ferries, two for general public use, two for the Fish Marketing Organisation, one for an abattoir, one for a cattle quarantine depot and one for the police.
Water Supplies
Full supply was maintained throughout the year. The storage situation continued to improve after the recovery from water restrictions in 1982 and the total storage reached a record high of 581 million cubic metres. The Lok On Pai desalting plant was not operated, and continued to remain as a 'standby resource'.
At the beginning of 1983, there were 434 million cubic metres of water in storage, compared with 260 million cubic metres at the start of 1982. Rainfall for the year was 2 894 millimetres compared with the average of 2 225 millimetres. A total of 251 million cubic metres of water was piped from China during the year.
On January 1, 1983, the combined storage in Hong Kong's largest reservoirs, High Island and Plover Cove, was 383 million cubic metres. The salinity of water at High Island remains at about 12 milligrams per litre, while at Plover Cove the salinity varied from