1965 — Page 68

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

MR. A. de O. SALES: -I accept that reply, Sir, although I am inclined to think that the authority might have been secured after the date.

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS:-I can assure you, Sir, that that was not so. Mr. SALES seems to be determined to put the Police in the wrong, but he cannot in this case. (Laughter).

(8) MR. CHEUNG WING-IN asked the following question:—

Many local papers carried a report that a public standpipe at Nam Shan Village, Shek Kip Mei, serving over 1,000 residents has been disconnected as from the beginning of May 1965 and the residents have now to go a long way to Tai Hang Tung for their water.

Are these reports true? If so what are the reasons for the disconnection and what steps (if any) are being taken to supply water to the 1,000 residents affected?

THE COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT replied as follows:-

It is correct that one free standpipe was removed recently in this area. There were previously two standpipes in the area. One of these, the one which has not been removed, is a metered standpipe; the other one, which was the one removed, was a free standpipe installed several years ago.

I understand that arrangements have now been made for another metered standpipe to be installed about 250 feet nearer the village and that the residents have paid the installation charge for this. Work started this afternoon on installing the new standpipe.

MR. CHEUNG WING-IN:-Mr. Chairman, from the answer given is it Government's policy to cease supplying free water to all squatter areas, and replacing all free standpipes with metered standpipes?

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: Mr. Chairman, I think the answer to that is that in squatter areas, that is resite areas, transit areas and licensed areas, free standpipes will be put up as they have been in the past, and there is no question, as far as I know, of making squatters pay for their water; but in the case of villages there is a policy to wherever possible replace the free standpipes with metered standpipes. In this case the siting of this was done in conjunction with the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and/or his representative and the village representative.

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MR. CHEUNG WING-IN-In that case, is it Government's policy to replace all these standpipes at Tai Hang, Aberdeen and other areas with metered standpipes, if they are not located in the resettlement areas or licensed areas or other areas?

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS:—I will have to look into that question, but I believe many of these are possibly already metered, if they are not in squatter areas. The ones for instance that serve the boat people are metered because they pay for their water.

MR. CHEUNG WING-IN:--In cases where these standpipes are metered, how is Government going to charge the inhabitants who use them?

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS:-The village representatives pay the deposit and they are responsible for paying bills and collecting the fee from the villagers.

MR. CHEUNG WING-IN:-And Government has no idea how much these representatives are collecting from the villagers concerned?

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS:-The Public Works Department is only concerned with collecting charges from the village representatives.

MR. CHEUNG WING-IN:-So Government is only concerned with seeing that its charges are paid and is not concerned with how the money is collected from the villagers?

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS:-I imagine that anyone suspecting that the village representatives are dishonest can take appropriate steps to report to the proper place.

MRS. E. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, I wonder whether the Director of Public Works knows that there has already been a complaint about the kaifongs collecting in one area, and collecting too much. May I ask the Director of Public Works, through you, if he could check to see that investigations are made beforehand, because I have heard two other complaints of standpipes being removed and it seems to me to be wiser to put in the metered ones before removing the others.

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: -Mr. Chairman, the position with regard to this standpipe is that we have, since the water crisis of 1963-64 ended, been removing many free standpipes which were put up to meet the needs of the public at that time, and owing to a mistake this standpipe was removed under the impression that it was a temporary standpipe put up during the water crisis. If there are others which were not put up for the water shortage which have been removed, I will certainly look into it, but on the whole, I think that the ones which have been removed were the temporary ones.

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