ENG-1960 — Page 50

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REVIEW

flood water for disposal every year whichever scheme was adopted, and that arrangements would have to be made to prevent the back-flow of sea water through the overflow channels. The Con- sultants recommended the adoption of the scheme which involved building the dam at the outer entrance of Hebe Haven, the employment of two groups of indirect catchment areas as well as the direct one, and a full scheme of dredging. They advised that development on these lines would produce a reliable yield of 20 million gallons a day within five or six years, compared with the seven to nine years forecast for Plover Cove. It was noted that this project would be cheaper to integrate into the Colony's distribution network and that the unit cost of about $1.15 per thousand gallons would be less than that of any other project under consideration, including Shek Pik.

Early in the New Year of 1960, and before any decision was taken on Plover Cove, two new developments occurred which were to affect profoundly all plans for improving the Colony's water supplies. First was the prospect of obtaining water from Sham Chun reservoir. The second, which was perhaps stimulated by the implications of the Sham Chun scheme, was a suggestion from the Consulting Engineers that these three schemes, Sham Chun, Plover Cove and Hebe Haven, might be integrated into one. More- over, the Director of Public Works had prepared a new appre- ciation of the Colony's water supply which presented a gloomy outlook for the coming decade. One of the basic assumptions in previous calculations had been that each year there would be an increase in consumption of 6 million gallons a day. There was, in fact no real basis for this figure because it had rarely been possible to give a 24-hour supply and so determine the real demand: on isolated occasions of full supply in 1958 and 1959, the consumption was 83.9 million gallons and 93.3 million gallons a day respectively. Had ample water been available and the domestic and industrial consumers been accustomed to a full supply, the actual consumption would undoubtedly have been higher. An annual increase of 10 million gallons a day now seemed more realistic, particularly during the next few years while the resettlement programme continued at full stretch and industry