year was 89.55 inches, which is 5% above average and the total yield from the catchment areas was 14.0% higher than last year. Under the Agreement with the People's Council of Kwangtung Province 14,791 million gallons of water was received from China during the year. Heavy rainfall in May and June gave a marked increase in storage in all of the Colony's reservoirs and further heavy rainfall in August resulted in the overflow of the older reservoirs. Plover Cove overflowed on thirty-four days in September and October. A total of 20.06 inches of rain fell in September, compared with the Royal Observatory's long term mean of 10.98 inches and at the end of the month the total storage was 53,424 million gallons, or 99.8% of capacity. This was fortunate, as the rainfall for October 1970 to March 1971 was only 9.74 inches compared with the long term mean of 12.53 inches.
10.13. The 24-hour daily supply continued throughout the year and apart from some minor intakes in the New Territories unrestricted supply has been maintained since 1st October, 1967. The average daily consumption was 172.6 million gallons with the peak demand of 205.8 million gallons on 28th August, 1970. These figures are respectively 9.1% and 6% higher than the corresponding figures for 1969-70.
10.14. The maintenance of a balanced draw-off between the smaller reservoirs and Plover Cove was made difficult by the required shut-down at the Tai Po Tau Pumping Station in November, December and March to carry out work at the pumping station and in the tunnels in connection with the scheme for raising the Plover Cove dam. A shut-down at Sha Tin Treatment Works in connection with the up-rating of the works and a month's shut-down of the Tai Lam Chung supply tunnel for repairs at the Chai Wan Kok portal were also necessary. By the end of the year, however, the balance between the smaller reservoirs and Plover Cove had been largely restored.
10.15. The four additional filter beds at the Yuen Long treatment works were put into service in January 1971, thus increasing the filtering capacity from 2 million to 4 million gallons per day.
10.16. With the increasing use by the public of the catchment areas for recreation, the problem of rubbish dumping has become more acute. Weekend patrols by Waterworks staff accompanied by police were begun on an experimental basis to discourage the indiscriminate disposal of litter.
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