ENG-1960 — Page 26

REVIEW

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opinion in the Colony (not among the engineers) which doubted the need for a scheme of such magnitude and one senior official committed himself to the assertion that 'the population of Hong Kong cannot go on increasing'. The deadlock was broken in March 1951 when the Director of Public Works proposed a modified version of the original scheme, complete in itself and costing about $40 million. This involved reducing the height and therefore the length of the dam and its designed capacity. A further saving would arise in that the original plan conceived three smaller cut- off dams across depressions in the ridge forming the western boundary of the reservoir; by reducing the height of the main dam, and therefore the depth of water impounded, these cut-off dams would be unnecessary until the time came to enlarge the works to full capacity. A little more forethought would have led to the conclusion that when the demand for water increased to the point where it became essential to implement the full scheme, it would be necessary to lower the level of water in the reservoir still further and to maintain it at that reduced level for two years until the foundations of the cut-off dams were built. This, in fact, was one of the factors which later persuaded Government to carry out the full project.

By August 1951, a representative of Messrs Binnie, Deacon & Gourley had visited the Colony and reported on the practicability of the modified scheme, and in the same month the Governor in Council and Finance Committee gave their approval to meeting the cost from the Development Fund. Work began early in 1952 under the supervision of Brigadier G. B. Gifford Hull, who had " also been in charge of the Shing Mun scheme. He was later to become Chief Resident Engineer at Shek Pik until his retirement in December 1958, by which time he had been intimately associated with three major waterworks projects in the Colony over a period of twenty six years. By October 1953 it was already clear that the additional supply of water which would become available would be quite insufficient to meet even the existing deficit. During the summer of 1954 the daily supply had to be kept down to three or four hours, and only an unusually late typhoon enabled a three hours' supply to be maintained throughout the following winter. Various additions to the 1951 proposals were therefore approved from time to time until by 1955 improvements in the