Plover Cove Reservoir, located within Plover Cove Country Park, in the northeastern

New Territories The New Territories (N.T., Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: ) is one of the three areas of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of H ...

, is the largest

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

in Hong Kong in terms of area, and the second-largest in terms of volume.Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department: Plover Cove Country Park
/ref> It is the world's first freshwater coastal lake constructed from an arm of the

ocean The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. The ocean is conventionally divided into large bodies of water, which are also referred to as ''oceans'' (the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Indian, Southern Ocean ...

. Its main

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

, which disconnected

Plover Cove Plover Cove, also known by its Chinese names Shuen Wan Hoi () or Shuen Wan (), is a cove in the Tai Po District of Hong Kong, near Tolo Channel and Tolo Harbour. Geography It is encircled by the hills Pat Sin Leng and Wan Leng (), the Yim Tin T ...

from the sea, was one of the largest in the world at the time of its construction.

History

Planning

Hong Kong lacks significant natural inland water bodies, and providing water supply to the territory's population has long been fraught with problems. On 24 July 1958, an official spokesman stated that government engineers were studying the idea of converting sea inlets into freshwater lakes, and cited Plover Cove as one of the foremost areas under consideration. The plan was considered feasible as the cove was mostly enclosed on three sides, and could be fully cut off from the sea by damming sections of the

Tolo Harbour Tolo Harbour (), or Tai Po Hoi (, historically ), is a sheltered harbour in northeast New Territories of Hong Kong. Geography Tide Cove, also known as Sha Tin Hoi, is to the south of the harbour, and Plover Cove, Three Fathoms Cove and T ...

known to be very shallow. The government hired the engineering consultancy Binnie, Deacon and Gourley to undertake a preliminary investigation. In mid-1959 the engineers delivered a report confirming the feasibility of the plan and laying out the basic arrangement of the proposed dams. They estimated that construction would cost about HK$348 million, plus approximately $60 million for the associated water distribution network.

Construction

One main dam and three service dams were built to shut the cove off from the sea. The cove was then drained and converted into a

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...

lake. Construction work commenced in 1960 and was completed in 1968, providing a capacity of 170 million m³. Work on raising the height of the dams began in 1970. Upon completion in 1973, the reservoir capacity was increased to 230 million m³.Water Supplies Department: Plover Cove Reservoir
The dam of the reservoir is 28 metres tall and approximately 2 km long. Besides rain from its

catchment A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, th ...

, it also stores water imported by pipes from the

East River The East River is a saltwater Estuary, tidal estuary or strait in New York City. The waterway, which is not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island, ...

in China. The

Bride's Pool Bride's Pool () is a small river in the northeastern New Territories, Hong Kong near Tai Mei Tuk. The river is characterized by a string of waterfalls with plunge pools. Mirror Pool is also located nearby. Legend and namesake Legend has it that a ...

flows into the Plover Cove Reservoir.

Displaced people

The creation of the Plover Cove Reservoir necessitated the displacement of the inhabitants of a number of

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...

villages which were submerged by the reservoir. The Hakka villagers were compensated by the Hong Kong British colonial government with apartments and shop units along Kwong Fuk Road in

Tai Po Tai Po is an List of areas of Hong Kong, area in the New Territories of Hong Kong. It refers to the vicinity of the traditional market towns in the area presently known as Tai Po Old Market or Tai Po Kau Hui () (the original "Tai Po Mark ...

known as "Luk Heung San Tsuen" () which were built for their resettlement there. Fisherman who used to live at the original Sam Mun Tsai site, close to

Tai Kau Tai or TAI may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Tai (comics) a fictional Marvel Comics supervillain *Tai Fraiser, a fictional character in the 1995 film ''Clueless'' *Tai Kamiya, a fictional character in ''Digimon'' Businesses * Avianca El Salv ...

Luk Heung Luk or LUK may refer to: Surname Luk or Loke is the Cantonese romanization of several (but not all) Chinese surnames that are romanized as Lu in Mandarin. It may refer to: *Lu (surname 陆) *Lu (surname 禄) *Lu (surname 逯) *Lu (surname 鹿) Ot ...

, now at the northeastern shore of Reservoir, were relocated to Sam Mun Tsai New Village on the island of Yim Tin Tsai in 1966. At the time, 36 families were moved to housing on land.Liu T.S.
"Home on the Water: Livelihood and Society of the Fishermen Community in Tai Po"
, ''Tai Po Book'' pp. 115–116

The reservoir today

Plover Cove Reservoir supports a diverse wildlife, including many freshwater fish species.

Tai Mei Tuk Tai Mei Tuk is a place close to the Plover Cove Reservoir in the Tai Po District, New Territories, Hong Kong. Administration Tai Mei Tuk is a recognized village under the New Territories Small House Policy. It is one of the villages represe ...

at the northwestern end of the main dam is a popular

barbecue Barbecue or barbeque (often shortened to BBQ worldwide; barbie or barby in Australia and New Zealand) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that employ live fire and smoke to coo ...

site in Hong Kong.

References

External links

Video
relocation of the residents of Tai Kau (1966)

Reservoirs in the eastern part of New Territories
– in

Chinese (Traditional) Traditional Chinese characters are a standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages. In Taiwan, the set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the ''Standard Form of N ...

Plover Cove
{{Reservoirs of Hong Kong Reservoirs in Hong Kong Tai Po District 1968 establishments in Hong Kong