ENG-1957 — Page 289

PUBLIC UTILITIES AND PUBLIC WORKS

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Work has also started on a proposed new dam to flood the Shek Pik Valley on the south coast of Lantao. The construction of the foundations will present considerable difficulties, but it is hoped that they can be overcome. The Consulting Engineers were accordingly instructed to proceed with the design of the dam and other essential works, and by the end of the year a team of engineers was engaged in *grouting an experimental section of the foundations of the dam, the results of which will determine the practicability of the whole scheme.

In the New Territories all the principal market towns have water supplied either from main sources or provided independently from local stream intakes. Supply hours are subject to restriction as in the urban areas, but the system of piped water supplies is gradually being extended year by year. A 5,000,000 gallons service reservoir was constructed near the rapid gravity filters of the Tai Lam Chung Scheme at Tsuen Wan, and a trunk main laid from it to the town. A 15-inch diameter pipeline, 22,000 feet long, to replace two 6-inch pipelines, was laid to improve the supply position in the town of Yuen Long. Work began on laying an 8-inch pipeline from the new reservoir at Tai Lam Chung to the village of Castle Peak, which at present has no public supply. To assist the town of Tai O on Lantao, which obtains its water from wells which run dry during the winter months, work was commenced on a small reservoir and a 6-inch pipeline to the town.

In addition to the shortage of water for domestic purposes, there is also not enough for agriculture in the New Territories. The position is being complicated by the con- struction of new catchwaters, which intercept water that would otherwise flow onto agricultural land. A large number of small schemes consisting of diversion dams and channels

* Grouting the injection under pressure of a cement mixture into the gravel sub-soil to make it watertight.