ENG-1991 — Page 244

LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES

Fill Management

Marine sand can be dredged quickly and economically and is the preferred source of material for major new land reclamation projects. Around 350 million cubic metres of marine sand will be required for new reclamations over the next 15 years. Over half this demand will occur between 1992 and 1994 during construction of the new airport and related developments. Large amounts of soft marine mud will be dredged from the sea bed prior to some of these reclamations. This is mainly to avoid unacceptable delays to project programmes due to settlement of the mud if it were left in place.

The territory's fill resources are managed by the Fill Management Committee (FMC) whose Secretariat is housed in the Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO) of the Civil Engineering Department. During 1991, the FMC Secretariat completed the establishment of a comprehensive computerised database of all data on fill sources. This database provides the information on which the committee makes decisions on reservation, allocation and efficient utilisation of fill resources for all government and major private projects. During the year, the FMC also took over the management and programming of mud dumping from the Environmental Protection Department.

A major investigation of sea bed materials by the GEO is about to be completed. More than a dozen marine borrow areas have been investigated and these contain over 350 million cubic metres of sand suitable as fill material.

New Towns and Rural Townships

The initial 10-year housing programme aimed to provide proper living conditions for 1.8 million people. To meet this objective, new town development programmes were drawn up in 1974 to co-ordinate planning and construction activities for the provision of land, infrastructure and a full range of social, educational and recreational facilities in the New Territories. Since then, the programmes have been substantially increased and extended into the 1990s. The present population design capacity of the eight new towns at Sha Tin, Tai Po, Fanling, Yuen Long, Tin Shui Wai, Tuen Mun, Tsuen Wan, Tseung Kwan O and rural townships is 3.65 million. At the end of 1991, about 2.3 million people were housed in the new towns.

The New Territories Development Department was created in 1973 to plan and implement the new town development programmes. In 1986, the department extended its role to cover further development in the urban areas and its title was changed to Territory Development Department.

The department is constituted on a multi-disciplinary basis and includes professional officers with expertise in civil engineering, architecture, landscaping and quantity sur- veying. They work closely with the Housing Department, Planning Department, City and New Territories Administration, Urban Services Department, Regional Services Depart- ment and other government departments to ensure that development objectives are met economically, efficiently and in accordance with the development programmes.

In addition to participation by other works departments and consultants, the private sector has been actively taking part in the development of comprehensive housing schemes within the new towns and rural townships.

Tsuen Wan and Kwai Chung

Tsuen Wan New Town extends over the areas of Tsuen Wan, Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi Island. Its total population is about 716 000, which represents a two per cent decrease when

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