HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
the soft drink dispensing booths outside the chain link fence. The possibility of controlling dumping of broken bottles from this source is being studied.
MR. PETER NG PING-KIN:-Thank you Mr. Chairman. Would it be possible for you to give strict orders to your staff to do what is supposed to be done normally, that is to have the Park cleaned up by 9 a.m., because on the 2nd of December when I was down there at about 11.30 a.m. there was some broken pieces of glass right in the middle of the path?
CHAIRMAN:-I will follow up that suggestion Mr. NG.
MR. PETER NG PING-KIN:-Thank you.
(2) MRS. E. ELLIOTT asked the following question:-
(a) About three months ago a complaint was sent to the Resettlement Department that the people in Tai Ping Village, Ngau Chi Wan, were suffering from a serious lack of water. What is the present situation? How many people live there? How many water taps are there? How many wells? What is the condition of the water?
(b) Why were so many people resettled in a place where there was no water laid on?
THE COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT replied as follows:-
I propose to answer the second part of the question first. Nobody has been "resettled" or resited in this village as suggested in the question. It is a squatter area occupied by people illegally in 1962 and 1963.
The answers to the first part of the question are as follows:
(1) The occupants of this area applied to the Water Authority in May 1966 for the installation of standpipes but the Water Authority was unable to approve the application owing to inadequate water pressure, the village being above the level to which water could gravitate from the existing distribution system. Following Mrs. ELLIOTT's approach to my department in September this year, the problem has been re-examined by the Water Authority, but I can hold out no hope of a solution as it seems likely that the cost of a piped supply would be prohibitive.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
(2) The exact population of this area is not known but is estimated to be about 3,000.
(3) There are no taps in the area, the occupants obtaining their drinking water from the two taps in Fei Po Hang village about 200 ft. down the hill. These taps provide a filtered supply from the mains.
(4) There are no wells in the area and the site is unsuitable for sinking them owing to its rocky nature. Several streams pass through the area and are used by the squatters for doing their washing.
MR. B. A. BERNACCHI:-Mr. Chairman, I should like first of all to ask the Commissioner for Resettlement whether this area that he is referring to is an area that used to be a cemetery area. No. 3 Chinese Cemetery, or it was in the past, overlooking Jordan Valley.
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-I am not sure, Mr. Chairman, whether it was a cemetery, but certainly its location is on the hill side behind and above the R.A.F. Officers' Mess looking down on the site of the Ping Shek Estate of the Housing Authority. It is certainly near our Jordan Valley resite area. I don't know whether this was part of the cemetery too.
MR. B. A. BERNACCHI:-Then, Mr. Chairman, I would like to make a personal statement that I personally visited that site in 1953 or 1954 as a member of the Urban Council to find a site for squatters that were being moved from another area, and certainly therefore not all the people that occupied these buildings were people legally there only in 1962 and 1963. Some people were there as early as 1954 or so, and by virtue of an Urban Council decision.
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-That is very interesting, Mr. Chairman, I am very glad to accept that statement.
MRS. E. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, may I ask Mr. BARTY if he would check again, because in the first place, the people who applied to me said there were 15,000 people in the area, and secondly, I know that one of them was resited because I was responsible for getting a resite school, and I think he may have got the wrong area. I should be glad if Mr. BARTY would check.
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-Yes, certainly.
MRS. E. ELLIOTT:-One other question, Mr. Chairman, I also have a letter from the Water Authority saying that to fix up water
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