THE HONG KONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, JUNE 28, 1929.
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The Railway Department have been instructed by Government to make 20 trucks suitable for the transport of water from points along the railway As the Wang Mun sources affords the nearest unlimited supply it has been. decided to concentrate upon this source, and the necessary arrangements for the transport of approximately 3,000,000 gallons a day are being made. Some 67 lighters of approximately 200 tons capacity each, and about 25 towing craft, will be required. The Shipping Sub-Committee is making a census of all suitable craft but orders have not yet been placed except in the case of 18 lighters which are now being adapted. Of these eight 100-ton lighters have already been made available.
Wang Mun Scheme.
The Government Bacteriologist has reported on samples of water from Wang Mun, and the results are considered satisfactory, the water being ren- dered suitable for potable purposes by slight chlorination.
The permission of the Chinese Provincial Authorities and the Commissioner of the Chinese Maritime Customs has been sought for taking the water requirement of the Colony from this source.
The estimated cost of this scheme is approximately $200,000 a month, apart
from the initial cost of adapting lighters for the carriage of water. At present H.M.S Cherub continues to do very useful duty in transporting water from Wang Mun, and the S.S. Fukwong, a lighter tanker of 1,400 tons capacity, has been chartered for this service from the Asiatic Petro- leum Co., with a draught capable of negotiating the Wang Mun Bar at all states of the tide.
The Naval Dock.
The proposal to use the Royal Naval dry dock for storage has again received careful consideration. Apart from the serious difficulty of overcoming contamination of the fresh water by seepage this question is dependent upon the use of tankers, which alone would involve an expenditure of approximately $500,000 a month for a supply of 21 million gallons a day (not including the cost of water at Shanghai). The estimated expenditure in connexion with the Wang Mun Scheme is $200,000 a month, for a supply of 3,000,000 gallons a day, and it is hoped that this will prove to be a conservative estimate.
The tankers would also require storage units of much larger capacity than the existing tanks, and would involve additional pipe lines and pumping ashore-thus further increasing the cost of this source of supply.
Pumping to Tytam Tuk.
The alternative proposals of pumping from tankers into the Elliot Filter Beds or to the Tytam Tuk Pumping Station have been carefully examined, and the Tytam Tuk scheme is proving to be the more feasible proposi- tion. The Waterworks Department are preparing the scheme for laying the necessary pipes connecting the Pumping Station with the pier which it will be necessary to build to carry the pipe out to the tanker lying off in deep water. This pier will be erected by the Port Development
Office.
By this scheme it will be possible to connect the tankers with the pumps at the Tytam Tuk Pumping Station, which will deliver the water direct into the tunnel intake, whence it will flow through the Bowen Road Conduit into the Eastern, Albany and Elliot Filter Beds as required. It may be possible to arrange for tankers to convey water to Hong Kong orca- sionally in their way through the Colony without incurring the greater cost of hiring them entirely for the transport of water; but in any case arrangements such as are now proposed must be made to take delivery of such consignments as are carried by tankers with a storage capacity of about 10,000 tons.
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