17
No.
3
1902
HONGKONG.
WATER STORAGE CAPACITY IN HONGKONG AND KOWLOON.
Replies to the Honourable T. H. Whitehead's Questions.
Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government.
With regard to the City of Victoria, a reservoir and catchwater at Wongneichong Gap were com- pleted in April, 1899. The maximum capacity of the reservoir is 33,994,000 gallons.
No other works for adding to the storage for the City Supply have been completed in the years mentioned.
One additional storage reservoir at Tytam has been begun and preparations are being made to commence another. The combined capacity of these two will be about 100,000,000 gallons.
With regard to Kowloon, no storage in the ordinary sense of the term bas hitherto existed, the works originally constructed consisting of dams across the outlets from three valleys of considerable area to prevent the escape of water underground, provision being also made for conveying the water thus intercepted into wells, from which it flows through pipes to the pumping station.
One of the dams was practically reconstructed and was also raised 5 feet, the work being coin- pleted early in 1899.
A main was laid and small dams were constructed across several stream-courses at Cheung Sha Wan in the New Territory, the work being completed in 1900, to render the water of the streams available for waterworks purposes. No storage reservoir was constructed as there was no suitable site for one.
In 1901, several improvements and modifications were made in the Cheung Sha Wan Intake and main in order to supply the whole districts of Mongkoktsui and Yaumati from this source, thus leav- ing the supply obtained from the original works available for the remainder of the Peninsula. This arrangement has worked satisfactorily.
The second part of the question is in a form which does not admit of being answered exactly. The scheme for increasing the supply for the City obtainable by gravitation from Pokfulam and Taitam, towards the carrying out of which the steps mentioned above are being taken, described in Mr. COOPER'S Report, is estimated to yield 4,000,000 gallons per day, or sufficient for a population of 266,000 people. The present population is estimated at 213,000.
as
The new scheme for Kowloon, for the carrying out of which tenders are now being invited, is estimated to yield 1,575,000 gallons per day, or sufficient for a population of 157,000 people. The population of the districts to be supplied, as ascertained from the Census of 1901, amounts to 66,244.
W. CHATHAM, Director fo Public Works.