The Aberdeen Reservoirs were built to augment
Pok Fu Lam Reservoir in providing water supply to the west of
Hong Kong Island. The Lower Aberdeen Reservoir, with a capacity of , was originally a private reservoir owned by Tai Shing Paper Factory, built in 1890, which also provided water to nearby residents. The
Government bought the reservoir at a price of
HK$460,000 and expanded it to a capacity of 486,000 cu m. At the same time, the Government built a new reservoir with a capacity of 773,000 cu m above the original one, increasing the total capacity to 1,259,000 cu m. The reservoirs were officially opened on 15 December 1931 by
Governor of Hong Kong William Peel, becoming the fourth and last reservoir group ever built on
Hong Kong Island, after
Pok Fu Lam,
Tai Tam and
Wong Nai Chung. In 1977, a 4.23 square kilometre area around the reservoir was designated as
Aberdeen Country Park, one of the earliest
country parks in Hong Kong. A total of 41 pre-World War II waterworks structures located in six reservoir areas, namely
Pok Fu Lam Reservoir,
Tai Tam Group of Reservoirs,
Wong Nai Chung Reservoir,
Kowloon Reservoir,
Shing Mun (Jubilee) Reservoir and Aberdeen Reservoir, were
declared as monuments in September 2009; the dam, a valve house and a bridge of the Aberdeen Upper Reservoir and a dam of the Aberdeen Lower Reservoir were declared as monuments in 2009. ==References==