ENG-1955 — Page 193

PUBLIC UTILITIES AND PUBLIC WORKS

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Practically all the water is supplied to consumers through meters, the charge being based on the total cost of provision, including capital cost.

In addition to the severe restrictions on supply during the dry months, the inadequacy of existing resources involves a certain amount of restriction even during the wet season. After the exceptionally dry weather of 1954, followed by three almost rainless months at the start of this year, rain fell in abundance, and a potentially critical situation was fortunately averted. An unusually dry September and October, however, caused a rapid decrease in the yield from streams, and in November it was necessary to reduce the urban hours of supply to 2 hours daily-the shortest period since the war. The average daily consumption for the year was 34.61 million gallons, the peak figure being 50.52m. gallons, reached during an 11-hour supply period in September.

In the New Territories all the principal mainland market towns have water supplied either from main sources or provided independently from local stream intakes, and the system of piped water supplies is gradually being extended year by year. During 1955 a scheme to provide water to Shataukok, started in 1954, was completed. The most im- portant project, however, was the provision of water to the town area of Cheung Chau, supplying a population of about 22,000. There is no suitable place on the island itself for the construction of a reservoir, and the water has been obtained by building a reservoir in the hills behind Shap Long on the neighbouring Lantao Island. This is conveyed through a 6-inch diameter pipe for a distance of almost 2 miles by land, subsequently passing through about 0.8 mile of 6-inch diameter submarine pipeline across the narrow channel separating Lantao and Cheung Chau. The water gravitates to a filter and collecting tank on Cheung Chau, and is then pumped to a 100,000-gallon capacity service reservoir situated on one of the highest points on the northern end of the island. The full capacity of the Shap Long reservoir is 30,000,000 gallons.

The erection of a 7m. gallons per day rapid-gravity filtration plant on Taipo Road, near Kowloon Reservoir, built with the aim of increasing the quantity of water available to consumers during the wet season, when frequently a con- siderable volume of flood water runs to waste, was practically