CO129-518-8 Colonial Development Fund- requests and recommendations for monetary assistance for various projects 30-8-1929 - 28-2-1930 — Page 29

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(4)

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The balance of surplus assets in recent years

has been as follows:-

31.12.25

31.12.26

31.12.27

31.12.28

Description of schemes.

$8.113,482

$3.486.290

$3,985,76)

$8,091,633 (of which $6,604,345

represented liquid assets)

(a) The Aberdeen Valley Water Scheme.

(b) The Sheng-mun water scheme.

Despite extensive developments in the

reservoir system of Hong Kong it has not been possible to keep abreast of the ever-growing demand for water, for the increasing population on the island of Hong Kong and the developing urban area in Kowloon on the mainland opposite. During periods of drought the supply has always been precarious and the cause of much anxiety. The last two summers have witnessed a period of abnormally low

rainfall.

A number of schemes have been put forward

to meet this situation: the present proposals are

concerned with two of these.

(a) The "Aberdeen Valley scheme offers a new source of supply within the Island and thus possesses obvious advantages from the points of view of

convenience and of defence.

The scheme provides for the resumption of the Colony's water rights in the Aberdeen Valley (on the South of the Island), an area where these had been alienated for commercial purposes at a time when the rapid expansion of Hong Kong was not foreseen. The Government is taking over a storage reservoir with a

capacity of 92 million gallons constructed by the Tai Shing Paper Manufacturing Company, on payment

for