Water Supplies Department to proactively follow up on recommendations of Ombudsman's Direct Investigation Report
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"The WSD launched the Replacement and Rehabilitation Programme of Water Mains in 2000 to replace and rehabilitate about 3 000 kilometres of water mains in stages. Following the substantial completion of the Programme in 2015, the condition of the government water supply networks has improved significantly. The number of water main burst incidents reduced significantly from about 2 500 cases in 2000 to 88 cases in 2017 while the leakage rate of water mains also dropped from over 25 per cent to about 15 per cent in the same period. Nevertheless, given the hilly terrain of Hong Kong, the water pressure of our water supply networks is generally higher than that of other cities. Together with vibration and disturbance caused by busy traffic and frequent roadworks, these factors cause an increase in the risk of water main bursts and leakage," the spokesman said.
As mentioned in the Report, the WSD is adopting various underground water main asset management measures to maintain the health of the government water supply networks, including risk-based reprovisioning of water mains of high risk or with repeated bursts and installation of leak noise loggers at busy road sections. The department also analyses the causes of water mains bursts and formulates improvement measures for which the implementation progress will be closely monitored, especially for "main burst hot spots" (i.e. locations with repeated water main bursts). In addition, the WSD is planning to formulate a long-term risk-based underground water main asset management plan by making reference to overseas experience.
The WSD has been striving to reduce leakage of water mains, including proactively implementing the Water Intelligent Network (WIN). Under the WIN, the WSD collects data from the water supply networks by establishing District Metering Areas (DMAs) to strategically arrange and implement cost-effective water main repair and improvement works. To reduce the leakage in the water supply networks, the WSD has implemented water pressure management in individual DMAs that have been established to maintain a proper balance between stability of water supply and pressure of the water supply networks as well as detect water mains with leakage based on the data collected in the DMAs for repairs. The WSD will also continue to adopt advanced equipment for leak detection in regard to water mains. The WSD targets to reduce the leakage rate in government water mains to below 10 per cent.
Regarding the recommendations of the Office of the Ombudsman, the WSD has implemented or will implement the following measures:
Minimising water main bursts
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(1) To continue to closely monitor the "main burst hot spots", prioritise its follow-up works and proactively carry out improvement works;
(2) To remind relevant government works departments that if a contractor's works have caused damage to water mains, the poor performance should be reflected in the relevant item in the Contractor's Performance Report;
(3) To consider revising internal guidelines to include objective criteria for planning inspections of road works projects located near water mains;
Following up on water main bursts
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(4) Since the inconvenience arising from suspension of salt water supply is less than that of fresh water supply, the WSD would take into consideration factors such as disturbance to road traffic and noise nuisance during the night time when arranging urgent repair works to resume salt water supply which may delay the completion of the repair works. That said, the WSD will examine the situation for a longer time required for resuming water supply in salt water main burst incidents as compared to fresh water main burst incidents, and propose and implement improvement measures;
(5) To consider setting performance targets on the time required for resuming supply after salt water main bursts;
(6) To review and simplify the existing performance targets for follow-up actions on fresh water main burst incidents;
Further reduce leakage rate of water mains
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(7) To continue making reference to the experience of cities that have achieved good performance in maintaining the health of water supply networks in areas such as surveying, leak detection techniques and water pressure management;
(8) To set targets for reducing the leakage rate of water mains and publish regularly the latest leakage rate on the WSD's website; and
(9) To continue to implement in full swing the various current underground water main asset management measures and the WIN.
The spokesman said that the WSD believes there will be further reduction in burst incidents and leakage rates of government water mains by implementing the above-mentioned measures.
Ends/Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Issued at HKT 20:00
Issued at HKT 20:00
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