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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 11, 1963)
2 Jg SUNDAY. AUGUST U. 1863 MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFOHD. OREGON Chinese Water Supply Vital to Hong Kong Br ARTHUR J. DOMMEN United Press International Hong Kong-fllPB-The Chi nese Reds could tike over this tiny British outpost with ease, either by armed force or simply by cutting off the water supply. ' Hong Kong, which flaunts skyscraper hotels, swank country clubs and a vast in dustrial complex, gets about five billion gallons of yater a year from China, and the Reds can turn off the faucet any time they choose. But no one here is worried. There is virtually no fear on the part of government of ficials or private citizens that China will make that strategic move, although all agree the colony would be easy pickings if it did. Why is Hong Kong so safe, while other less desirable pieces of real estate are eyed covetously by the Commu nist Chinese? Shortage Has Passed The critical water shortage is Honk Kong's jugular vein and the mid-summer madness which saw thousands of bare ly clothed people running soap in their hands at the slightest sign of a rain show er has passed. But the critical shortage of fresh water which caused die crisis ' is not over. And in the opinion of most realistic government officials, it will not end in the foreseeable fu ture. Hong Kong, which para doxically consists mainly of beautiful islands surrounded by lapping waves and thin peninsulas stretching (heir arms into languid blue and green waters, has a popula tion whose natural expansion races ahead of engineers' fran tic schemes for preserving precious rainfall. Fight Losing Battle The engineers have been fighting a losing battle since 1859, when the governor, Sir Hercules Robinson, offered a reward for the design of a workable water supply sys tem. ' ' The winning plan provided for a small impounding reser voir in the Pokfulam valley on the south side of Hong Kong island, from which an open conduit led to the center into the streets with bars ofof the business district. Ca pacity of this first reservoir was 66 million gallons less than Hong Kong's 3.5 million residents consume in an aver age summer day today. The trouble is that Hong Kong depends on rainfall for all its water. It is necessary to conserve the run-off from the wet season (April to Sep tember) in sufficient man made storage reservoirs to last during the dry season (Oc tober to March). No Permeable Strata Nowhere in the British col- only is there a large area of permeable strata wnicn coma be used as a natural storage basin underground. There is strick rationing of water in Hong Kong. Resi dents currently only receive water pressure in their taps for four hours every lourtn dav. There has been a mass campaign aimed at eliminat ing water wastage, ana tne Hong Kong government this summer managed to reduce the total per capita consumption. Still, even with rationing, consumption is running about 40 million gallons of water per day, 'compared with a 1 A - . fry .to-1- 2 ll 1,'t -.1 villi is. w CARRIES WATER Against a backdrop of carries water in cans up a narrow path lo luxury apartment houses, a girl, member of her home in Hong Kong. (UPI) a squatter family living in a hillside hut, No matter how you cut it . . . ' ' Mercury comet'! the corner on driving fun! Two-door $ Sedan With Low Monthly Payments Beit deal of the year given now! Large selection of models, colors and equipment. mwm motors 225 So. Riverside Phone 772-6157 peak of 93 million gallons at the same time last year when there was a daily 8-hour sup ply in effect. The last sum mer there was a round-the-clock supply of water vas in 1957. At the height of this sum mer's crisis, authorities began prosecuting persons caught washing automobile or water ing their rose beds. Ten large tankers were hired to ferry water from the mouth of the nearby Pearl river flowing down from the South China city of Canton. Two Major Projects Within the colony itself, there are at least two major projects to increase the total reservoir capacity from its present 10V4 billion gallons. The first is a land reser voir on the virtually uninhab ited island of Lantao, and the second calls for creating a sea -level reservoir by shut ting off a cove in the nearby New Territories by construct ing a dam. The sea-level res ervoir, which will not be in operation before 1972, .will have a total capacity of 30 billion gallons per day through a complicated sys tem of pipelines, some of them under the sea. The most famous pipeline in the colony at this date, Thornton May Sue For Federal Funds Salem -(UPD- The federal government has withheld more than $30,000 from three Oregon state agencies and Atty. Gen. Robert Y. Thorn ton said his staff is consider ing going to the U. S. Court of Claims to try to get it. Because of a dispute over state gasoline tax rebates the federal government claims it is owed, the U. S. general ac counting office has withheld payment of more than $23,000 to the Oregon Fish commis sion, nearly $6,000 from the Oregon Game commission and about $1,500 from the Slate Highway commission. however, is the one which brings water into the New Territories from across the Red Chinese border. Purchase Water Under an agreement with the Reds, Hong Kong pur chases five billion gallons per year from the mainland Shumchun reservoir, paying 23.4 Hong Kong cents (about four U.S. cents) per thousand gallons. The water was orgin ally offered free of charge. But the British, spotting an invitation to the exercise of political pressure at some fu ture date, insisted on contract ing for the sale, rather than for the gift, of the water. The recent crisis led the Hong Kong government to ex plore the possibility of ex tending the Shumchun pipe line from its source In China a further 45 miles to the west, where it could capture fresh water from the East riv er. The Communists are re-'. ported to be still considering this idea, which would add another 20 million gallons per day to the colony's water sup plies. Other Schemes Other water - producing schemes are further off. Hong Kong has had nuclear distilla tion schemes under study since 1958, but they have been too costly. The crisis over water sup plies has once again raised the old question of Commu nist China's leverage over this tiny foreign enclave which China probably could capture without firing a shot. But old Hong Kong hands know what value a free Hong Kong holds for Red China, in terms of ' hard dollars and cents in trade and in terms of access to the great outside world, especially in view of Peking's quarrel with its Russian neighbors For this reason, authorities here have no compunction about increasingly drawing their water supplies from that vast hinterland which lies on the other side of the Bamboo curtain. As long as Communist China remains out of the United Nations and has such limited relations with the other nations of the world, Hong Kong has much more value as a doorway to the West than it would ever have as just another city in China. bhmi SALE! OVER 300 BLOUSES TO SELECT FROM Sleeveless Short Sleeve Roll Up Sleeva Lots of Color and Whita Sizes 30 to 36 VALUES TO $5.98 sgg Dennis the Menace so You LIKE everything flAT,Wih yA?4 AT STARK'S, Your Vacuum Gleaner Headquarters BRAND NEW, III FACTORY CARTONS! 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