WATER IN HONGKONG
With the further water restrictions introduced on Saturday, what could be more appropriate for comment than the water supply of the Colony? I give a summary of the history of Hongkong and Kowloon's water services, based on a paper prepared in 1929 by Sir Cecil Clementi, at the time of our last great drought. This history is now embodied in the local Hansard for that year.
The construction of residential and business premises on Hongkong island began in March, 1841, when Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Company erected the first substantial house and godowns at East Point. The mercantile centre of the Colony was at the outset in Wongneishong Valley and Chinese settlement began to the west of the valley. The water supply for these early settlers came from the fine mountain-stream which gives the valley its name, and which makes its way into the harbour through what is now known as the Bowrington Canal. The so-called Blue Pool in this stream provided a small storage; and it is interesting to note that during the 1929 water emergency this pool, which was reconstructed by the city waterworks in 1874, was again brought into use and dug out, after being completely silted up in the course of the intervening years. Moreover, even when the drought was at its worst, the Hongeichong stream never failed to flow. Doubtless it was this natural water supply which attracted the first settlers to the Happy Valley.
In 1841 there were estimated to be 5,650 Chinese in Hongkong. The number of Europeans, then resident on the island, is not known; but it must have been very small. Ten years later, in 1851, the population had increased to a total of 32,988 souls, of whom 1,520 were non-Chinese; and in that year the Colony's first waterworks were constructed, namely, five wells for the city supply. Again, it is interesting to remark that during the big drought in 1929 the public had to fall back upon the opening of wells in Happy Valley and elsewhere to eke out the failing supply from the reservoirs.
The next step was taken in 1880, when two tanks were constructed in Bonham Road for the city supply. These two tanks were, three years later, connected by an aqueduct with Pokfulam, where in 1883 the Colony's first storage reservoir was completed. The Pokfulam scheme, like so many of the Colony's waterworks, was developed by successive stages. In 1863 the capacity of this reservoir was only two million gallons. In 1871 by reconstruction its storage was increased to 66 million gallons; and in 1895 an additional 4,400,000 gallons were impounded by the use of boards, making the total capacity of Pokfulam reservoir 70,400,000 gallons.
Meanwhile, in 1877, the conduit between Pokfulam and city was reconstructed; and in 1890, four filter beds for this reservoir were built with an area of 1,360 square yards.
The second, and by far the largest, of the storage schemes on the island is that in the Tytam valley. The original section of this scheme was completed in 1889. It provided for a storage reservoir of 312,330,000 gallons, a tunnel 1.38 miles long, a conduit three miles long, and a service reservoir with a capacity of 5,700,000 gallons. In 1897 the dam was raised to impound an additional 72,470,000 gallons.