N
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In addition to the sheer magnitude of the project, there is the
exciting nature of the High Island concept. Certainly the idea of
carving a reservoir out of the sea is not new, indeed it was pioneered
by Hong Kong at Plover Cove in the 1960s, but the damming of the two ends
of a channel between High Island and Sai Kung peninsula takes the idea a
stage further.
In technical terms, High Island represents a world breakthrough
in more than one respect. In particular, its eastern dam will have to
withstand wave pressures generated by an unbroken 7,000-mile expanse of
ocean stretching all the way from the western coast of Central America.
The first rains of the wet season next year are expected to start
the lengthy process of filling in the reservoir. At the moment, construction
of the main western dam is well under way, with good progress on the
asphalting of its core.
The Duke will not be able fully to appreciate the human problem
of High Island from the air, but nó résumé of the reservoir's story is"
complete without a reference to the manner in which the displacement of
about 400 villagers from the area has been tackled.
In the fishing town of Sai Kung, about five miles to the west,
six housing blocks, providing every displaced family with at least one free
flat, have been buift and are now occupied. This housing forms "part of a
compensation package worked out with the villagers at a cost of about
$40 million.
But the Duke will be interested to learn that his concern in the
conservation and the state of the environment everywhere has been fully
taken into account by planners of the reservoir.
/Care has