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This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's "Government.
Printed for the Committee of Imperial Defence. December 1928.
SECRET.
O.D.C. 557-M.
COMMITTEE OF IMPERIAL DEFENCE.
OVERSEA DEFENCE COMMITTEE.
Copy No.
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Hong Kong Water Supply.
Memorandum by the Oversea Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence.
1. THE Colonial Office have referred to the Oversea Defence Committee, for consideration from the defence point of view, the proposals now under discussion for improving the water supplies in the colony of Hong Kong.
The question was discussed by the Committee at their 291st Meeting held on the 16th November, 1928, and they had the advantage of being able personally to consult Sir Cecil Clementi, the Governor of Hong Kong, who is at present on leave in England.
The Present Situation.
2. The situation, as placed before the Committee, is as follows:-
(a.) Hong Kong Island.
The population of Hong Kong Island is estimated at the present time to be about 600,000. It has almost doubled in the past ten years, and during the last year alone some 100,000 Chinese have arrived to stay, while periodically many additional thousands visit the Island for short periods.
New works now being undertaken on the harbour front at Wanchai, and in the direction of North Point, are likely to result in a permanent addition of about 100,000, but any considerable further increase in the population of the Island appears unlikely.
The bulk of the water for the Island is derived from the Tai-Tam Valley, and there is another smaller reservoir containing about 70 million gallons at Pok-fu-Lam. The latter alone is available for supplying the western end of the town, and at times lack of water in this reservoir causes a shortage in that quarter, even if plentiful supplies are available at Tai-Tam.
When supplies are available in the catchment areas and reservoirs, the existing waterworks on the Island are capable of supplying 7-25 million gallons per diem, this being the maximum capacity of the aqueducts by which the water reaches the
town.
The Director of Public Works at Hong Kong has estimated that the daily requirements (peace time) for 1932 will be 11-6 million gallons per day, so that, unless the existing supply is augmented, there would at that date be a deficiency of about 4 million gallons per day.
(b.) The Mainland.
The population of the New and Old Kowloon Territories is approximately 300,000, and that of the remaining territory on the mainland about 100,000. The latter are at present entirely dependent on wells and other forms of purely local water supply, while the 300,000 in the Kowloon Territories are furnished with water by means of reservoirs and pipe-borne supplies. Extensive work is at present being
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