The Territory Development Department (TDD) has completed the river training works for the River Indus Basin in the North District. The completion of the works is a remarkable milestone in relieving the residents of the North District from the perennial flooding menace.
The five-year river training works, with a total cost of 1.2 billion, have upgraded the capacity of the river channels to cater for one in 50 year rainstorms.
Speaking at a ceremony to mark the completion of works on the main drainage channels for River Indus, River Beas and River Sutlej, the Director of Territory Development, Mr Wong Hung-kin, said today (September 17) that the works for these three rivers in the River Indus Basin were sizable and entailed the straightening and widening of some 9km of existing meandering rivers with raised river embankments.
The works also included the re-provisioning of existing facilities that were affected by the projects such as the reconstruction of 12 river-crossing bridges.
"With the completion of the river training works in the lower River Indus, River Beas and River Sutlej in early 2002, the flooding risk in Kwu Tung, Ho Sheung Heung, Long Valley and Tak Yuet Lau had been substantially alleviated," Mr Wong said.
The training works for the 4.6km Upper River Indus from the KCRC Bridges in Fu Tei Au to San Wai Barracks suffered significant slippage due to insufficient resources of the contractor and TDD re-entered the contract and re-tendered the remaining works in two stages, he said.
The new contractor successfully completed the critical river channel works to provide a flow capacity of 1 in 10 year before the wet season of 2002, which reduced the flooding risk in the areas alongside the Upper River Indus, he added.
"The full stretch of new river channel from Fu Tei Au to San Wai Barracks was also completed before the wet season of 2003. The flooding risk of the flooding black spots in Fu Tei Au, Hung Kiu San Tsuen, Sheung Shui Wah Shan, Tin Ping Shan Tsuen, Shek Wu San Tsuen, Ma Shi Po Tsuen, Siu Hang Tsuen was greatly alleviated," said Mr Wong, adding that the department's effort in alleviating the flooding problems in these areas was appreciated by the North District Council.
The remaining works including the maintenance access and landscaping works will be completed in stages by early 2004.
From mid 90s, the Government began a number of large-scale river training projects in stages to alleviate the flooding problem in the North District. The works started from the downstream of Shenzhen River, and gradually progressed upstream. The training works of the Shenzhen River from Deep Bay to Lo Wu was completed by the Drainage Services Department in mid 2000.
To tie in with the training of Shenzhen River, TDD started the river training works in the River Indus Basin from 1998 onwards.
Also attending today's ceremony are the Chairman of the North District Council, Mr Pang Hang-yin, the North District Officer, Mr Wong Hon-ho and members of the North District Council and district representatives.
End/Wednesday, September 17, 2003
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