ENG-1961 — Page 265

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PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES

will finally emerge at Sandy Bay on Hong Kong Island. From here, the new supply goes through the Sandy Bay Pumping Station to the Mount Davis Service Reservoir which, when completed, will provide storage for 30 million gallons of water fit for drinking and will be the largest service reservoir in the Colony. At this height water will flow by gravity to North Point, and across the harbour to Kowloon, for Shek Pik will provide more water than the Island can now consume.

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The Tai Lam Chung Reservoir was opened on 7th May 1957. That date marked the completion of the storage reservoir, tunnels and pipelines, to bring the water into the urban areas, and the construction of the filters. Since then the indirect catchment area has been extended by the construction of open, concrete-lined channels and tunnels. Without this extra yield the reservoir would not fill during an average summer rainfall. An additional 1,321 acres of catchment area were added during 1961.

The new filtration plant at Aberdeen on Hong Kong Island can provide six million gallons a day and meets the need for filtered water which population expansion demands. The new plant at Yuen Long on the western seaboard of the New Territories will supply two million gallons a day.

Distribution of treated water for domestic and industrial use involves a system of trunk mains to smaller service reservoirs sited at suitable levels. A trunk main of 48" diameter steel is being laid along Hong Kong's waterfront. New service reservoirs are situated at North Point on the Island and King's Park on the mainland, others are being constructed at Magazine Gap Road, Chung Hom Kok, Mount Davis, Kennedy Town and Conduit Road on the Island, Fung Wong, Lion Rock and Ngau Tau Kok High Level in Kowloon, and Yuen Long. From the service reservoirs, the water is piped to the houses and factories through a network of mains of varying sizes from large cast iron mains of 18" diameter to small 2" pipes of galvanized iron. The extension and enlarge- ment of this system is a continuous process which must keep pace with development and re-development of existing property in the urban areas, in the new industrial town of Tsuen Wan, and in the rural townships of the New Territories.

The quality of the treated water is high and it may be drunk with safety from the taps.