ENG-1987 — Page 18

6

HONG KONG

J

BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

The Need for Infrastructure Even in the era of make-do and mend in the fifties there were certain imperatives that had to be provided for. The first, and most pressing, was water supplies. The pre-war system of reservoirs on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon were clearly inadequate to meet the demands of a rapidly-expanding population and industry, and new sources of supply had to be developed as a matter of urgency. As it was, even when supplemented by water bought from China, supplies were not sufficient in years of drought to prevent severe water rationing until the large new reservoir at Plover Cove was commissioned in 1968. This was followed in 1978 by the even bigger development at High Island. These were both very considerable investments, with the High Island complex alone costing some $1.5 billion. Since that time, continued expansion in the demand for water has been met by increasing purchases from China so that, today, more than half Hong Kong's water supplies come from the Mainland. Even so, considerable additional investment in distribution facilities – pipelines, pumping stations and treatment plants -- continues to be necessary.

Another area which grew in urgency with the expansion of the economy was transport. Little investment in new roads or other facilities was needed, or could be afforded, in the fifties and travel demands were largely accommodated within the existing road system. This came under increasing strain during the sixties as the numbers of vehicles and journeys steadily grew. So new roads and systems were planned and built and existing facilities improved. The most striking development in that period was the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, commenced in 1969 and opened in 1972. By joining the road systems of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, the tunnel gave an immense fillip to travel between what had hitherto been two separate cities, linked only by ferries. One striking development was a tremendous growth in cross-harbour bus services through the tunnel which created entirely new travel patterns. In terms of the benefits it provides to the economy and society, the money spent on building this tunnel must be one of the best investments that Hong Kong has ever made. It undoubtedly played a part in moving the economy into a new and accelerating phase of growth as the seventies progressed. Yet, at the time, it was considered by many to be a speculative investment and there was great hesitation before the decision was made to start construction.

A yet more ambitious development was the Mass Transit Railway (MTR), which runs under some of the most congested parts of the urban area. Altogether, this took almost 11 years to build, from 1975 to 1986, at a total construction cost of over $20 billion. It was conceived in the sixties and the decision to build it was taken by 1973, again after much hesitation and scepticism in some quarters. Within the same period, also, the existing surface railway, the Kowloon Canton Railway (KCR), was modernised, double-tracked throughout, and electrified, to provide a fast link between Kowloon and the Chinese border. The two railways have an interchange facility at Kowloon Tong which is very heavily utilised and which effectively integrates them into one system.

The capacity of the road system has also been greatly expanded over the years, including the construction of tunnels, overhead roads and flyovers. There is now a strategic network of mostly dual-carriageway roads that extends throughout the territory and is still being added to. Without these roads, supplemented by the carrying capacity of the railway net- work, traffic would long ago have seized up and the economy would have been strangled.

Links with the Outside World

Another important preoccupation has been the development of the facilities necessary to maintain and expand Hong Kong's links with the outside world – the port, the airport and