ENG-1964 — Page 198

PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES

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holding reservoir from which it would be discharged by gravity into the Shum Chun reservoir.

Two meetings were held with the authorities in Canton and an agreement was finally signed on 22nd April 1964. This agreement will come into force as from 1st March 1965 when the existing agreement under which Hong Kong buys 5,000 million gallons a year from Shum Chun will be deemed to have been superceded. Under the new agreement, Hong Kong is guaranteed a supply of 15,000 million gallons of water per year at a price of approximately $1.06 per thousand gallons.

During the period of unrestricted supply from 28th August con- sumption averaged 106.8 million gallons a day with a maximum of 126.74 million gallons on 14th October compared with a previous daily record of 112.02 million gallons on 10th October 1962.

The completion of the Shek Pik dam in November 1963 had brought the number of storage reservoirs in the Colony to 15 with a total capacity of 15,868 million gallons. This year the Shek Pik catchwaters were completed and commissioning tests were successfully carried out on the pumps at Pui O and Sandy Bay. Good progress was also made on the reception reservoirs at Mt Davis and Kennedy Town and all the trunk mains to distribute the Shek Pik water were completed.

Because of the weather progress on the Plover Cove scheme was disappointing. Stage I of this scheme consists of pumping stations at Tai Po Tau and Sha Tin, an eight-mile combined collection and delivery tunnel from Tai Po Tau to Sha Tin, a 900 million gallon reservoir in the Shing Mun valley below the Jubilee Reservoir, an 80 million-gallon-a-day filtration plant at Sha Tin, and two 48- inch and one 54-inch steel trunk mains through the new Lion Rock Tunnel to reception reservoirs on the south side of Beacon Hill from which the water will be distributed. Work was substan- tially completed on all projects except the tunnel between Tai Po Tau and Sha Tin which was behind schedule, but it is expected that it will be completed in time.

Stage II of the Plover Cove scheme comprises the construction of a 1 mile long dam and two subsidiary dams to convert a sea inlet into a 30,000 million gallon fresh water reservoir and the construction of collection and delivery tunnels. Reasonable progress was made on the dam and the tunnels.