Shek Pik Reservoir on Lantau Island, which took eight years and HK$250 million to build, was inaugurated on the morning of 28 November 1963 in a ceremony presided over by Governor Robert Black. The reservoir, Hong Kong’s largest at the time, supplied fresh water to Hong Kong Island through undersea pipes to ease the water shortages that the territory had been experiencing. Several dozen representatives from Shek Pik Village along with some 200 other individuals attended the ceremony and witnessed the governor unveil a commemorative plaque mounted on a huge rock that marked the completion of the reservoir.