- Title: HONG KONG: COLONY TREASURES WATER IN FACE OF DROUGHT
- Date: 28th June 1967
- Summary: Newspaper announces rationing; buckets outside shop loaded into van; people carrying water; people shopping with buckets; more buckets. Initials IF/VS/RM/OS Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 13th July 1967 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: HONG KONG
- Country: Hong Kong
- Reuters ID: LVA2WWMQBN76JNNHA57IF0A5V33M
- Story Text: Hong Kong, which from tomorrow (Thursday) is obliged to limit residents to four hours' water supply on alternate days, is to make a further appeal to the Peoples' Republic of China for more water. Faced by drought as a result of the exceptionally dry weather, the 98 per cent Chinese population of this British colony is making every effort to save water and forestall the shortage.
The Peoples' Republic of China stopped pumping water through the pipelines into the British colony on Sunday after meeting the annual agreement for 15,000 million gallons (68,100 million litres) between October 1 and June 30, plus a request for an additional 1,800 million gallons (8,172 million litres). It has yet to reply to a request for a further 2,000 million gallons (9,000 million litres).
Experts suggest that the Peoples' Republic is unlikely to deliberately inflict a drought on a city with so many Chinese in it. They say that the discomfort caused would guarantee mass unpopularity for local Communists, ever on the look out for Hong Kong support.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong's four million people are laying down buckets of water with the same attention they would give to rare champagne.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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