ENG-1959 — Page 282

234

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

5,350 million gallons of water in what is at present a cultivated valley. The residents of the village of Fan Pui, situated on the site of the dam itself, were resettled in a new village constructed in an adjoining valley; and the villagers from Shek Pik, which will be inundated when the reservoir is completed, will be accommo- dated in blocks of flats to be built for them at their request at Tsuen Wan. A system of catchwaters and tunnels will collect the yield from indirect catchment areas extending over the whole of the south and west sides of Lantau Island.

A contract was let for the construction of approximately 6 miles of main supply tunnels from Shek Pik to a pump house at Pui O, and from there to filtration works overlooking Silvermine Bay, on the south-east coast of Lantau. The filtered water will be delivered to the Island of Hong Kong through two 30-inch diameter steel pipe lines laid in a trench in the seabed, extending from Silvermine Bay on Lantau to Sandy Bay on Hong Kong, a distance of eight miles.

From Sandy Bay the water will be pumped to two new service reservoirs sited at different levels on the slopes of Mount Davis, the higher having a capacity of 30 million gallons and the lower of 5 million gallons. Water will be led from these reservoirs into the distribution system of the Colony by an extensive series of large trunk mains. It is expected that water will be available from Shek Pik by the winter of 1963.

All the principal market towns in the New Territories obtain water either from main sources or independently from local stream intakes. Supply hours are subject to the same restriction as in the urban areas, and the system of piped water supplies is being extended year by year. A filtered supply was given to the village of San Hui, and good progress was made on a scheme for pro- viding Ping Shan, Yuen Long and Sek Kong with a first class filtered and treated supply of potable water.

In addition to the shortage of water for domestic purposes, there is also insufficient for agriculture in the New Territories. To remedy this situation and, as mentioned above, to allay the fears of villagers that the construction of new catchwaters for large new reservoirs would divert water that would otherwise flow onto agricultural land, the Government continued the policy of increasing irrigation supplies. A large number of small schemes