ENG-1953 — Page 168

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT, 1953

The water supply to the urban areas in both Hong Kong and Kowloon is filtered and sterilized by chemical treatment and a high standard of purity is maintained. Practically all the water is supplied to consumers through meters, the charge being based on the total cost of provision, including capital costs. The average daily consumption for the year was 34.43 million gallons per day, and the peak figure was 51.77 million gallons per day, even though the water was available only for sixteen hours in the day. Restrictions on the hours of supply have to be imposed the whole year round to keep the consump- tion within the available resources and capacity of the filters but during the dry season the hours of supply have to be reduced to as few as five per day.

In the rural areas of the New Territories independent supplies from stream intakes in the locality are provided for some of the larger villages. The supply to the Un Long district was improved and extended to include the Ping Shan group of villages. Five wells were sunk to improve conditions on the island of Ping Chau, and pipes and pumps were ordered to provide a supply from Lantao to the neigbouring island of Cheung Chau, which is estimated to have a population of over 20,000 people.

Work on the construction of the first section of the Tai Lam Chung dam was continued. Orders were placed for a filtration and pumping plant required to deal with a maximum of 20 million gallons per day, the quantity which will be available on completion of the first and second stages of this scheme. The large pipes required for the trunk main were ordered and about half were received.

Two rapid gravity filtration plants were ordered. The first will have a capacity of 7 million gallons and will be installed at Taipo Road, replacing existing slow sand filters. It will,

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