tion has only once been recorded for these months when 3.29 inches fell in the winter of 1928/29. The rainfall in the five months, November to March was even more remarkable, 0.54 inch against an average of 10.06 inches and a previous minimum of 1.66 inches in 1916/17.
Storage
303. All reservoirs overflowed to waste on eighteen days and the Tai Lam Chung reservoir overflowed for the first time on 20th July. The contents of the impounding reservoirs on three cardinal occasions were as follows:
Date Quantity in Million Gallons Remarks 1st April, 1959 4,300 41.07% 4th August, 1959 10,469 100% maximum 31st March, 1960 3,525 33.7% minimumSupply and Demand
304. The rate of new building construction gave no indication of any decrease. The construction of new domestic and office buildings, private and public, continued unabated and substantial progress was made in the building of resettlement estates and new factories. All of this magnified the demand for water.
305. Supply was severely cut back to three hours a day at the end of the previous year to facilitate the sealing of the tunnel carrying water from Tai Lam Chung Reservoir. These repairs were completed on 4th April and the supply increased to eight hours daily, and later to ten hours daily on 24th April.
306. Rainfall for the first quarter was well over average with very heavy rains in June. An unrestricted supply was made available on the 16th resulting in a record daily consumption of 93.34 million gallons. The previous peak supply was 83.9 millions on 4th September, 1958.
Distribution
307. Improvements made to the distribution system and experience gained in operating the system of feeding in zoned areas at different hours of the day enabled a reasonably equitable distribution of water to be maintained despite the greater consumption, but complaints, especially when the very short hours of supply were introduced, could not be avoided. The programme of providing new mains and sub-mains to replace encrusted and undersized pipes and to meet new development continued.
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