edit

Go up the path a couple hundred metres and have a look at the little reservoir this flows from.
It's not really "fresh" but apparently some people do swim there.

On Tung O beach they have something like that set up (or have had in the past). Also some areas where pools were created on the rocks above the path, great for cooling off on a hot day or rinsing off after a swim

.\ ??? surely most people consider the winter the best time for walking the trails

Yeah, this is the tail end of the trekking season.
I'm about to make my annual switch over from trekking through the cool dry hills to swimming at the beach. While the trails get muddy, humid and mosquito ridden until August or September.

Looking at the before/after photos above I fail to see the improvement.

The bamboo pipe would actually be less hygienic than the current steel pipe. I've seen quite a few dogs and even humans drinking from that pipe and never heard of ill effects so far. It's fed from that pool above just below the Youth Hostel, occasionally used for adventure-type activities and swimming.

So what would be the improvement besides a pink painted line and a bamboo rod?

I agree that this has potential of being made to look nicer so more people would use it, at least for cooling off.
But the water needs to be tested, probably OK for most people and pets, but definitely not up to HK's extremely high drinking water standards.

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

The picture implies there is a basin that the pipe fills up.
But anyway, the government would never build something like that, for fear of encouraging anyone drinking from it.
The reservoir is pretty muddy and mucky. May well get runoff from the hostel. I've rinsed off sweat using it, but would never drink it myself.

Actually there is a water main pipe running beside the path, The government could put water fountains at intervals along the path with minimal cost. But they won't. There is one and only one drinking fountain on Lamma I know of, hidden at the back of the HSY life guard building.
And it's broken half the time, since it has an elaborate electronic purification system and refrigerator that easily goes out of order.
The water is coming straight from the water main, it's perfectly safe to drink. All it needs is a simple bubbler fountain tap.

But they will never put public water fountains up. It might cut into the sales of water in plastic bottles.
A city where it's over 30 degrees for months on end, where the tap water is certified safe to drink, but you cannot find a drinking fountain anywhere in the city.
In Melbourne for instance, there are hundreds of free water fountains, in every park and many on the streets.
Not in Hong Kong. None in any "sitting out areas".

Anyway, the pipe in question was obviously a homemade construction. If anyone is inspired to improve it, just go ahead. As long as you don't advertise it and put your name on it, you can get away with it. If you wait for the government, you'll be waiting a long time.

.......................

Lamma-gung mentioned people drinking it, and I was responding to his post.
But you said "fresh water", and that generally implies drinkable.



Mosquitoes only breed in stagnant water. If water flowed through a basin continuously it'd be fine.