1960s Hong Kong | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

1960s Hong Kong

1960s Hong Kong
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water rationing

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1960s Hong Kong
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Submitted by moddsey (not verified) on Mon, 2007-11-12 19:19.
In the 1960s, Hong Kong experienced severe water rationing. In 1967, taps were turned on once in every 4 days for only 4 hours!

Submitted by Simon Dyer (not verified) on Thu, 2010-08-05 03:02.

I remember this so well - we had to store water in the bath!

Submitted by sf (not verified) on Thu, 2010-08-05 09:08.

Beside the lack of rainfall, China may have turned off the tap to excerpt political pressure on Brit HK govt during the '67 riot.

Submitted by jaygee on Sun, 2013-05-05 01:41.

I think that the shortage was in 1963, I was in the army (1961-1964) working on Stonecutters Island and living on Boundary St. My wife had one son born 1961  and twins born 1963 Mt Kellet and Bowen Road Military hospitals. I enjoyed my stay apart from typhoon Wanda when I was stuck on Stonecutters for 3 days!

Submitted by David on Mon, 2013-05-06 22:11.

Hi Jaygee,

There were several droughts in the 1960s, though 1963-4 was the worst. There's a good diagram on pages 5 & 6 of this document showing how rare it was to have a full day's water supply before the mid-1960s, with rationing still required until 1982: 

http://www.wsd.gov.hk/filemanager/en/share/pdf/TWM.pdf

Regards, David

Submitted by bchan on Tue, 2015-10-27 22:31.

Hi,

Since you worked on Stonecutters Island, do you know of the Foster family whose son Malcolm is a HK University graudate of 1965. Classmates of his would like to get in touch with him for a reunion in HK.

Thanks.