ENG-1972 — Page 174

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Public Works and Utilities

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THE government's biggest single financial commitment is the programme of public works, which ranges from the formation and reclamation of land, the building of resettlement and low-cost housing estates, schools and hospitals to the construction of roads, sewers, piers and reservoirs. Capital expenditure on the programme for the financial year 1972-3 is estimated at $840 million, or about 23 per cent of the total expenditure envisaged in the annual estimates. Of this sum $81 million is to be spent on resettlement and government low-cost housing, $113 million on roads and $345 million on water supplies.

Water Supplies

For the fifth successive year Hong Kong enjoyed a continuous water supply, but as demand continues to grow at a high rate, the risk of having to impose restric- tions continues to pose a threat.

At the beginning of the year, the storage position was not very satisfactory; there were 35,317 million gallons in storage in January this year compared with 47,014 million gallons in January 1971. However, early rains soon improved the position, and the very heavy rains of mid-summer caused all reservoirs except Plover Cove to overflow. Relatively drier weather at the end of the wet season meant that we entered the dry season in October with our reservoirs only 94.5 per cent full. How- ever, as the total system capacity had been increased this year by the partial comple- tion of works to raise the level of the Plover Cove dams, we had in fact 51,032 million gallons in storage on October 1, 1972, compared with 41,346 million gallons on October 1, 1971.

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There were 24,434 million gallons of water stored in Plover Cove on January 1, 1972, and the inflow during the summer months reduced the salinity of the impounded water from 253 parts per million to 170 parts per million by the end of the year. Clearly marked thermal and chemical stratification occurred in the reservoir but this is considered a normal feature which causes no supply problems. From the initial impoundment of Plover Cove in 1967, nearly 1.8 million fish fry have been stocked in the reservoir to control algal and insect growth and maintain the quality of the water. As the condition of the stored water is good and the fish population has firmly established itself, fish stocking has been discontinued for the present.

The Chinese Authorities continued the supply from the Shum Chun Reservoir, and from October 1, 1971 until August 12, 1972, 18,003 million gallons were obtained, 3,000 million gallons of which were by supplementary agreement. The supply was resumed on October 1, 1972, in accordance with the agreement with the People's Council of Kwangtung Province. In November, a later agreement was reached