ENG-1959 — Page 278

Chapter 14: Public Utilities and Public Works

PUBLIC UTILITIES

Waterworks. The supply of water to Hong Kong is the responsi- bility of the Public Works Department of the Government.

In the absence of large rivers or other regular sources of supply, the Colony depends entirely for its fresh water on rainfall. This averages 84.7 inches per year, and falls mostly during the summer when the south-west monsoon blows and there are occasional typhoons. A dry season lasts from October to April inclusive and during these 7 months an average of 18.27 inches of rain falls but, because the ground is so dry at this time, very little of this rain- water finds its way into the reservoirs. The dry season sometimes continues to the end of June and it is consequently necessary to control the average daily consumption during the winter months in order that there may be a reasonable quantity of water in the reservoirs at the end of April as an insurance against delayed rains. The inadequacy of existing resources also makes it necessary to impose some restrictions even during the wet season.

A new reservoir at Tai Lam Chung in the New Territories was completed in 1957, and the Colony now has a total storage capacity of 10,500 million gallons in fourteen reservoirs of which the new one, with a capacity of 4,507 million gallons, is the largest. Nearly all these reservoirs fill completely during a normal wet season. Despite this substantial and very welcome improvement in water supplies, and the construction, now under way, of another new reservoir at Shek Pik on the island of Lantau, described later in this Chapter, the storage, together with the dry-weather yield from streams, will still be insufficient to meet the demands of a rapidly growing population and increasing development. Restrictions on the hours of supply will probably continue to be necessary every dry season for some years to come.