A few years ago he foreign business district between Honan Road and the river was specially prone to floods from high tides which not only hindered discharge, but often caused floods by reversing the flow in the drains. Still higher tides would flood the district over the fop of the Bund. This was first tackled by reconstructing the road at a higher level. But the work was troublesome to traffic in a very busy area and raised complications in adjoining properties. and, og all the roads are of the most expensive type as well, it was not continned after 1936.
Instead, the drains leading out of the area on all sides were fitted with what are called non-return valves which prevent flow into the area while permitting flow from the area. A concrete wall was built along the edge of the Bund and the approaches to the pontoons were either raised or provided with some device for keeping the water back. At the same time a pump was installed for removing the normal dry weather discharge from the many large buildings in the area when the outlets of the drainage system are closed by a high tide. The arrangement works quite successfully in preventing any sort of flooding on more than one hundred occasions in the year when the tide rises higher than the roads. The only Occasions now when floods occur are when the river water pours into the district over the French Bund, or when heavy rainfall occurring during a high tide is added to the normal drainage of the district and exceeds the capacity of the pump.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.