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Public Works and Utilities
KONG KONG'S programme of public works-from the formation and reclamation of land, the building of resettlement estates, schools and hospitals to the construction of roads, sewers, piers and reser- voirs is the Colony's largest single financial commitment. Expendi- ture by the Public Works Department accounts for about 45 per cent of total annual government expenditure. In the estimates for the financial year 1965–6, expenditure on capital works is set at $562 million—an increase of $72 million over the previous financial year. More than $160 million of this sum is devoted to the provision of water supplies, including work on the giant Plover Cove scheme which is designed to almost treble the Colony's reservoir_capacity by 1971. Some $143 million goes towards providing resettlement and government low-cost housing.
Largely due to heavy rain in October 1964, it was possible to maintain a continuous water supply to the urban areas for the first time since the war. Indeed, the recovery from the drought of 1963-4, when water was restricted to a four-day cycle of three waterless days followed by one day with four hours supply, was no less dramatic than the drought itself. This recovery was assisted by the signing of a new agreement with the People's Council of Kwangtung under which a minimum of 15,000 million gallons of untreated water a year is supplied at the frontier at a cost of $1.06 per thousand gallons. The main advantage of the new agreement is that the agreed quantity is not restricted by weather conditions. In the first two months of 1965, 1,653 million gallons were received under the original agreement signed in 1960 and this, when added to that supplied under the new agreement, makes a total of 10,745 million gallons for the year.
Total water consumption for the year on full supply was 40,004 million gallons. Based on a projection of the 1961 census figure for population this indicates a daily per capita consumption of 29 gallons. The average daily consumption for the year was 109.5
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