1963 — Page 158

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Page 158 of 194

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drought. I have, however, passed your suggestion to my friend the Director of Public Works who is concerned with the problems of water supply.

As far as the department is concerned, there are 15 wells in parks and playgrounds, the water from which is mainly used for flushing the latrines in these grounds. In addi- tion, the department has three other wells in Tung Lo Wan Road, Western Market and at Ho Man Tin. Water from these three wells and also from two of the fifteen wells I have referred to, is used for providing flushing water to public latrines and to those playground latrines which have no wells or where the well supply is insuffi- cient. Public bathhouses are also supplied with well water and in addition a limited amount of street cleansing in hawker areas and scavenging lanes is carried out.

DR. LEE:--A supplementary, Mr. Chairman, with reference to the last sentence in the first paragraph of the reply. I wonder whether our friend the Director of Public Works has carried out the survey so that the pertinent information may be conveyed either to me or to this Council?

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS:-Could I ask, through you, Mr. Chairman, what exactly is the survey to which Dr. LEE refers? Does he want us to do a survey of all private wells, of which there are many thousands throughout the urban area?

DR. LEE-I refer to both private and public wells.

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS:-I think that I might clarify one or two points in Dr. LEE's mind, if I can, by giving a rather long answer to this question. The geology of Hong Kong is such that there are no large deposits of underground water such as are found in the chalk and sandstone areas of England and other parts of the world. A few years ago a very big effort was made, and a great deal of money was spent, in drilling for water in the New Territories, and although many bore wells were sunk in areas which had been specially selected by geologists because of their favourable location, the results were extremely dis- appointing.

On the credit side, however, we are drawing just under 1 million gallons a day from a series of wells sunk in sandy soil near the banks of the Shum Chun River, and this water is being pumped to Tai Lam Chung and distributed from there. As we get more suitable pumps we are sinking more of these wells. This is one of the few cases where water from the river is in fact coming into the wells.

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In the urban areas of Hong Kong and Kowloon wells serve a useful purpose for the supply of flushing water, and they could be a great deal more effective if the wells and pumps were properly main- tained. Government has many wells in these areas which provide flush- ing supplies for public buildings which are not connected to the salt water system.

Finally, we are now sinking several deep bore wells on the Island and in Kowloon with a view to providing unfiltered water to lorries and water tankers as a substitute for the stream-courses which are now drying up. Boring is in hand at 12 sites, on several of which three or more wells are being sunk. It is not practical to pump water from these wells, whose yields are comparatively small, to treatment works for filtration and distribution through the mains, but I hope that we shall get something like 250,000 gallons a day from this source, for distribution to the small industries and traders who require additional water, and who are at present getting it delivered to them by lorries which have collected it from streams or wells.

DR. LEE: I find that most informative, Mr. Chairman, and I would reinforce the reply by saying that the Housing Authority also have a number of wells which yield several thousands of gallons per hour.

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: That is correct. Several thousands of gallons per hour is a very small amount in the quantities that I have to think about, and it is quite impractical to put in several miles of piping to bring in two or three thousand gallons an hour, because the pumps would not be adequate.

DR. R. H. S. LEE asked the following three questions:-

Since the building of super-markets is a modern trend, will the Chairman take up with the appropriate authority the question of air-conditioning and of installing escalators in the Council's future markets to ensure the better use of market floors and the accommodation of hawkers inside the market rather than the present unsatisfactory practice of siting them on the pavements and streets? Taking the Central Market as an example, can the Chairman state how long does it take to hire market stalls to re- cover the capital cost of market construction? Does the Chairman agree that when air-conditioning, escala- tors and lifts are specified in future markets, the site can be better exploited by building higher to provide office