China News Service, August 17. According to Hong Kong's Sing Tao.com report, Hong Kong entered the month of August with unstable weather. Tropical storm "Mulan" approached the coast of southern China last week, bringing continuous rainstorms to Hong Kong.
With sufficient water head, the total water storage in the latest ponds soared to nearly 444 million cubic meters, an increase of nearly 6%, or 26 million cubic meters, from last week's 418 million cubic meters.
The latest figures from the Hong Kong Water Supplies Department show that as of August 16, the overall water storage in reservoirs had risen to 75.72%; compared with the same period last year, it was nearly 24 million cubic meters, or 4.02 percentage points higher.
Among the 17 reservoirs in Hong Kong, 9 are overflowing with water storage reaching 100%, namely Aberdeen Upper Reservoir, Aberdeen Lower Reservoir, Tai Tam Sub-Reservoir, Tai Tam Middle Reservoir and Tai Tam Tuk Reservoir , Tai Tam Upper Reservoir, Shek Pik Reservoir, Kowloon Sub-Reservoir and Kowloon Receiving Reservoir, and Shek Lei Pui Reservoir also has a water storage capacity of nearly 96%.
The larger Plover Cove Reservoir and Wangi Reservoir have storage capacities of 85.43% and 64.51% respectively.
As for the Xiachengmen Reservoir, the water storage capacity is only 5.77%, which is far lower than the 24.8% in May this year.
The Hong Kong Water Supplies Department has previously explained that the water storage in the Lower Shing Mun Reservoir has been maintained at a low level because it is connected to the Plover Cove Freshwater Lake and is mainly reserved for rainwater collection when the rainfall increases sharply.
Extreme weather has been encountered from time to time in Hong Kong this year, resulting in erratic water storage in reservoirs.
According to the data, the rainfall in Hong Kong was relatively low at the beginning of this year. Among them, only 3.5 mm of rainfall was recorded in April, which was the lowest April record since 1961.
The total water storage in the ponds for the month was 320 million cubic meters, accounting for only 54.68% of the total capacity, one-sixth less than the same period last year.
However, in May, Hong Kong began to experience many heavy rains, which caused the water storage in Hong Kong's reservoirs to surge by nearly 15%, and began to "catch back" and return to last year's level.
It is worth noting that under the influence of tropical storm "Mulan", the rainfall in the first half of this month alone has reached 467.2 mm, which is higher than any other month this year, making the total water storage in the latest ponds further higher than the same period last year. 4.02 percentage points.