104
Road, Caine Road and High Street, including East Point and Kennedy Town Districts, has been brought within the definition of a rider-main district. Rider-mains have been laid, and water- services to the houses in rider-main districts have been disconnected from the principal mains and connected to the rider-mains. Connections with the principal mains are granted only in cases in which special sanction is given by the Governor-in-Council, and with regard to which the owners enter into an undertaking to pay for "excess consumption."
A
The present method of payment for water is as follows. rate of 2% on the assessed value of all premises, both on the island and on the mainland, is charged for water-services. In consideration for the payment of this rate a so-called "free allowance" of water is granted. This "free allowance" is calculated from the number of thousand-gallon units which the 2% rate will pay for at 40 cents a unit. Thus, if the 2% rate on a given house were ten dollars a year, the "free allowance" would be ten dollars divided by 40 cents, i.e. 25 units, i.e. 25,000 gallons a year. If, however, as in the rider- main districts, a house is not metered, the question of "free allowance" does not arise; no charge for excess consumption is made, and the supply is unlimited so long as the amount of water stored in our reservoirs permits, that is to say usually for about six months in a year. During the remaining six months, in time of water shortage, houses in the rider-main districts are often restricted to a supply of two hours a day; while, in time of severe drought such as we have recently experienced, the supply even from the rider- mains is shut off and the inhabitants have to draw their water from the street-fountains. In Kowloon there are no rider-mains and all unmetered houses obtain their supplies from the street-fountains. "Excess consumption" in metered premises is charged for at the following prices per thousand gallons:-
(a) filtered water--
Hong Kong and Kowloon
Peak District
Waterboats, Wharves and Contractors in res- pect of their building supplies receive no free allowance and pay a flat rate of
75 cents
$1.00
$1.00
(b) unfiltered water-35 cents (Fanling $1.00) with no free allowance. No water rates are imposed in districts supplied with unfiltered water. A higher price is charged in the Peak District, because in that district the use of filtered water from the mains for flushing closets has been permitted. Accounts are rendered quarterly and money does not reach the Treasury until some 42 months after the first day of the quarter brought to account.
Such being the present position as regards water storage and water distribution, it has been brought home to us
very clearly during the last twelve months that our storage is inadequate and that in time of drought our system of conserving water is clumsy and inefficient. For we have found the rider-main system to be sadly lacking in flexibility. If our rider-mains are in use, then the city supply from the trunk-mains cannot be cut off for periods of less than twelve hours, because any less period results in the upper floors of tenement houses getting no water at all. There are six rider-main districts and, in order that the pressure maz suffice to give top floors a supply, the water must be turned on to each district in rotation. Thus a twelve hours' supply in the trunk mains will only give each rider-main district a two hours' supply; and even a two hours' supply often fails to convey water to upper floors in tenement houses, owing to the draw-off by inhabitants on lower floors. Consequently, as a method of economizing water, the rider-mains cause the maximum of inconvenience with a mini- mum of result. Supply from the trunk-mains under a system of universal meterage would be far more satisfactory, as it should enable the Water Authority to reduce the period of supply to six hours or less without thereby inflicting disproportionate hardship on anyone. This year even the rider-mains had to be closed down and the city was obliged to rely for several months on street- fountains supplied from the reservoirs and on specially constructed tanks filled with water transported from the mainland in lighters and other craft. It is manifest, therefore, that our first step should be to build more reservoirs; but unfortunately the configura- tion of Hong Kong is such that storage possibilities on the island are very limited.
There is, however, one additional storage scheme, of which this Council has approved, and which is now being carried out, namely that at Aberdeen.
The Aberdeen scheme was approved by resolution of this Council on the 2nd May last. It provides for the resumption by Government of the existing storage reservoir with a capacity of 92 million gallons constructed by the Tai Shing Paper Manufacturing Company in the Aberdeen valley. This resumption has already been effected at a cost of $525,000, of which a sum of $52,500 has been paid on account, the balance being payable early next year. The Company has been granted 183 days, commencing from the 20th July last, to use up its existing stocks. On the expiry of that period Government obtains possession. The Aberdeen scheme further provides for the construction of an additional storage reservoir in this valley, estimated to contain 175 million gallons of water and to cost $900,000. The ancillary works, including catchwaters, mains, filters, an access road and a pumping station, are estimated to cost $1,277,000. The whole of this scheme will be financed by loan. It will much facilitate the supply of water to the western end of Victoria City, where improved distribution is most needed, for water from the Aberdeen valley will be piped to the Elliot filter-beds, which are to be augmented by a rapid gravity filtration plant. At
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