TNAG-0012-FCO40-48-Kowloon-disturbances-1967 — Page 90

QUESTION:

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So there will never be a shortage of

+

drinking water?

SIR DAVID TRENCH:

If it does not rain for the

KOR

but the

next two years and we do not get any from China, certainly,

but one has a right to expect some rainfall in the summer

months and indeed there is a typhoon now, Anita, some

200 miles away. But the point about cutting off the

water in this way is not that it reduces the consumption

by people it does to a considerable extent

real point is, you do not get the losses from the

distribution system in Hong Kong. The plant is modern

so the losses are around 20-25 per cent, which just leaks

away; but in an old distribution system like this I de

not know what the water losses in London are, but if they

are less than 40 per cent I would be surprised.

When you

cut it off you save a lot.

QUESTION:

What you are saying is, even if

the water is cut off from China, Hong Kong can cope, and

even if there is rationing it is not a question of hardship?

Yes, provided we do not

SIR DAVID TRENCH:

get a drought and provided we get reasonable rainfall,

but of course we have not had any rain really for a

year. The 12th of June last year we had a fearful

rainstorm with 25 inches of rain in a matter of hours,

and landslides all over the island, and no rain since.

The trouble with the weather in Hong Kong is, it has no

dann sense of proportion.

QUESTION: Do you mean Hong Kong can cope

indefinitely with four hours rationing?

SIR DAVID TRENCH: Till the wet season.

If

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there was a dry season and no water from China there

would be no doubt about it.

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