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of 1292 ft. From this tank water could be distributed to all parts of the Peak Residential area.
In 1917 Tytam Tuk Dam was finished, the largest and last to be built in that valley. With the completion of new slow-sand filters at Elliot in 1919, fed with raw water from Albany by means of a 12′′-18′′ pipe, and Eastern in 1925, supplied direct from Bowen Road conduit, the Tytam scheme apart from improvements and modifications was completed largely as it stands to-day. At the opening of the Tytam Tuk Dam, this scheme was publicly described as one to satisfy the Colony for many years to come, for Tytam Tuk Reservoir alone doubled the total storage capacity of the Waterworks at the date of its completion. Yet before the scheme was complete new supplies were being sought and within 12 years time and in spite of the addition of the Shek Lai Pui Reservoir and the availability of the flow from the Shing Mun Intake, in 1929 the Colony, though more particularly the Island, suffered its worst water shortage.
The original Kowloon supply was provided by three wells north of Yaumati with a yield of approximately 250,000 gallons per day which were brought into use in 1895. The New Territories Lease was effected in 1899 when the flag was first hoisted at Taipo on the 16th April of that year. In 1901 the well supply for Kowloon was increased by 100,000 gallons per day, but no reservoir scheme being possible on the Peninsula of Kowloon, no doubt the acquisition of the New Territories enabled serious consideration to be given to possible reservoir sites in the hills immediately to the north, for in 1902 work was commenced on the original Kowloon Reservoir to be completed in 1910. This gave Kowloon a storage capacity of 352.5 M.G. with an extra 32.5 M.G. if the weir level was raised 3 ft. with sluice boards. Three slow-sand filter beds were also built, an extra bed being added in 1916, and two more in 1922 and a second reservoir, Shek Lai Pui, of 116 M.G. capacity was completed in 1925, together with 4 more filters. But by that time, as was described above, the Island was nearing the end of its resources and it became necessary to look to the Mainland for extra water. In 1923 therefore a start had been made on the Shing Mun Scheme which, by means of a cross-harbour pipe line, would supply water to the Island in addition to providing further resources for Kowloon. The first part of the scheme only provided for an intake in the Shing Mun river for the purpose of augmenting the existing supplies, until such time as the Dam could be built to provide the storage reservoir necessary to the complete scheme. The intake supply conduit and reception reservoir were completed in 1926 but the whole of this part of the scheme was not officially opened until March 31st, 1930 when water from the Shing Mun River was first delivered into the Hong Kong Island distribution main. From this date Kowloon Waterworks ceased to be an independent unit from the older City Waterworks and from that time the development has been that of a unified system.
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It will be noted, therefore, that in 1929 the cross harbour connec- tion was still not laid-in fact at the period of the height of the crisis the Waterworks Engineer, Mr. R. M. Henderson, was in England discussing the scheme with the Consulting Engineers.
No historical note on the IIong Kong Waterworks could omit mention, though necessarily brief, of that desperate year. Despite the continual construction programme that has already been described, the 600,000 people on the Island in July 1929, so drastically was the water supply restricted, were only being allowed 3 million gallons per day from the Waterworks plus approximately 1 M.G.D. brought to the island in boats, a total of 6.67 gallons per person per day. On June 20th of that year only two reservoirs on the Island had any water left-Tytam 176.8 M.G. and Tytam Bye-wash 11 M.G., a total of little over 180 M.G. or 60 days of the restricted supply. To illustrate the seriousness of such a shortage it should be noted that a minimum storage of 1,000 M.G. at the end of May is now considered essential, or that with only 10 hours supply in March this year the consumption never dropped below 19 M.G.D. and in May averaged 24.3 M.G.D. compared with the 6.67 M.G.D. in June, 1929. The demand in 1929 for adequate measures to be taken was, of course, fully justified, particularly as only six years before the Governor, Sir Reginald Stubbs addressing the Legislative Council on the proposed Shing Mun Scheme had said that "whatever the sum may prove to be, I am sure that Honourable Members will agree, that no price is too big to pay for the assurance of a really adequate water supply for many years to come".
That supply was still not forthcoming in 1929, and largely as a result of that shortage an entirely new scheme was commenced on the Island in the valley above Aberdeen, extensive catchwatering was carried out to augment the Island catchments, and the Shing Mun scheme proper was expedited. The Aberdeen Reservoirs added 280 M.G. storage and were completed by 1931, as was the Byewash Dam in Kowloon, and the Jubilee Dam in the Shing Mun valley in 1936 which again doubled the total available storage of the waterworks, yet in 1937 and every year since, restrictions have still had to be imposed cumulating in the position this year that on 27th May with but a 10 hour supply there were only 1482 M.G. left in the reservoirs, or only 61 days supply at 10 hours per day.
The position today therefore is that with thirteen reservoirs having a combined storage capacity of 5970 M.G., it is only possible to maintain a 24 hour supply during the wet season and during every dry season the supply has to be restricted, in a good year perhaps no more than a nightly shut-off from say 10.0 p.m. to 6.00 a.m., but if resources drop and demand increases even this 16 hour supply cannot be maintained.
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