The Machinery
3.29. In the early post-war years, staff was scarce, and the need for work obvious. There was no specific planning section in the Waterworks Office. Much of the thought on where new works were needed was done personally by the head of the office. As the organization grew, and planning became more complex, a single planning officer was appointed in 1965, and planning is now controlled by a Chief Engineer with a staff of 4 or 5 engineers. This Planning Division prepares outline proposals for new water supply schemes for proposed developments throughout the Colony and also for revision of requirements in existing developments.
3.30. The planning for and development of operational programmes for existing resources is carried out by the Supply Division, and includes the management of storage and supply by computerization.
The Method
3.31. The planning of resource development must begin with an estimate of the need—in this case, the future demand for water. Crudely, this can be done by extrapolation of the past trend. This method, however, ignores possible changes in the community which may make the future increase in demand quite different from that in the past. A more sophisticated analysis can be made by subdivision of demand into categories—e.g. industrial, and various domestic categories—and with all available knowledge of future growth rates of each category of consumer, gleaned from population estimates, building programmes, etc., a picture of future demand can be built up from the estimates of its various parts. Estimates of this sort were prepared by the Water Resources Survey, and statistics to revise these are currently being gathered by the Waterworks Supply Division.
3.32. When demand is estimated, the possible resources can be matched to it, taking account of practical time-tables for investigation, design and construction of large civil engineering works. This work showed the need to proceed with works to increase the capacity of the Plover Cove system, and to begin investigations for the new reservoir at High Island. It was also shown that desalting will be needed in Hong Kong. As a result, an experimental desalting plant was installed to assess the performance in Hong Kong of materials used in evaporation for the manufacture of fresh water, and to establish a suitable location for a larger permanent plant.
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