ENG-1989 — Page 254

LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES

212

Construction Materials

During 1989, Hong Kong's construction industry consumed some 19 million tonnes of crushed rock aggregates and natural sand, of which about 45 per cent was imported from China. The bulk of internal production comes from seven contract quarries, supervised by the Geotechnical Control Office. During the year the first steps were taken to implement new landscape restoration policies at urban quarries.

Construction of the new Public Works Central Laboratory at Kowloon Bay was completed and the facility will be commissioned in 1990. The government's eight exist- ing public works laboratories carried out some 320 000 tests on construction materials including soil and rock, concrete, reinforcing steel, timber, aggregates and bituminous products.

The office is engaged in marine investigations for the preparation of an inventory of marine sand and gravel for use in reclamation and building works. Potential sources of fill of about 100 million cubic metres in volume have already been located. The future demand for fill materials for reclamation is expected to be very large, and in mid-1989 the Fill Management Committee was created, to manage and co-ordinate the use of fill resources for future development within the territory. The major tasks are to identify the demand for fill materials for all government, quasi-government and major private projects, to identify sources of land and marine-based fill to meet future needs and to decide on reservation, allocation and utilisation of fill resources in relation to development priorities.

Flood Control

Responsibility for flood control has been transferred to the Director of Drainage Services, supported by the new Drainage Services Department. The Flood Control Unit, set up in 1987 within the Civil Engineering Services Department to co-ordinate various flood-loss minimisation measures, has been restructured as part of the Special Projects Division of the Drainage Services Department. During the past year, with the help of experience gained from typhoons and rainstorms, the extent of the flood-prone areas, mainly located in the north-western and northern parts of the New Territories, has been identified.

In response to growing public concern on flooding in flood-prone areas, government's efforts have been co-ordinated to effect improvement and remedial measures. These include the short-term measures of desilting natural drainage paths and clearance of refuse and vegetation, medium-term measures of local drainage improvement, and the longer- term measures of regional land drainage projects implemented under the Public Works Programme.

In conjunction with these measures, the Special Projects Division also conducted exten- sive publicity and public education programmes on flood preparedness and on other precautionary measures which the local community could adopt to limit the extent of flooding. In particular, the public has been urged to avoid interfering with watercourses by indiscriminate disposal of refuse and animal waste, and uncontrolled filling over or near such watercourses.

In order to seek a long-term solution to the problem of flooding, a consultancy has been commissioned to conduct a study on territorial land drainage and flood control strategy with a view to recommending master drainage plans and a comprehensive approach to flood-loss minimisation suitable for local conditions. The findings of the study will be available early in 1990.