Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
LCQ12: Prevention of water mains bursts
Question:
It has been reported that there have been many water mains burst incidents in Hong Kong in the past year, with the ageing of water mains in old districts being a particular cause for concern. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the number of water mains burst incidents in each of the 18 districts in Hong Kong in the past year;
(2) whether it will conduct a comprehensive inspection of water mains and expedite the replacement of damaged or aged water mains; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(3) as the Government has advised, in the reply to a question raised by a Member of this Council in relation to the Estimates of Expenditure 2025-2026, that it will expand the monitoring area of the Water Intelligent Network (WIN) to include fresh water trunk mains and the remaining part of the fresh water distribution mains not currently covered by WIN, of the number of District Metering Areas (DMAs) under the expanded WIN and the implementation timetable (set out by District Council district);
(4) whether additional stop valves will be installed for water mains in non-DMAs not covered by WIN to reduce the risk of a large-scale water outage in the event of a water mains burst; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(5) whether it has drawn reference from the experience of the Mainland in using advanced smart technologies to monitor and manage underground water mains to further prevent water mains bursts; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
The Water Supplies Department (WSD) has all along been committing to providing reliable, sufficient and quality water supply to the public. The WSD ensures that the water supply networks could effectively operate through continuous improvement in asset management and making good use of technology.
From 2000 to 2015, the WSD carried out a territory-wide replacement and rehabilitation of water mains programme to replace and rehabilitate about 3 000 kilometres long aged water mains (including fresh and salt water mains), thereby raising the operational effectiveness of the water supply networks.
Since 2015, the WSD has implemented multi-pronged measures, through establishing Water Intelligent Network (WIN) and adopting risk-based asset management programme for water mains for formulating and implementing water main improvement works on risk-based approach, continuously maintaining the healthiness of the water supply networks and reducing the risks of water main bursts or leaks.
Through the above-mentioned measures and efforts made over the years, the number of annual water main burst cases has been greatly reduced from around 2 500 cases in 2000 to around 40 cases in 2023 and to 27 cases in 2024. The leakage rate of fresh water mains has also dropped from over 25 per cent in 2000 to around 13.4 per cent in 2024.
The replies to various parts of the Hon Yang Wing-kit’s question are as follows:
(1) According to records from the WSD, the numbers of water main burst cases in various districts for the entire year of 2024 and the first three months of 2025 are listed in the table below:
Region(as at March 31)(2), (3) and (5) Since 2016, the WSD has been establishing WIN within the fresh water distribution networks in the territory (covering approximately 80 per cent of the fresh water distribution networks). By the end of March 2025, the WSD completed the establishment of all 2 400 district metering areas (DMAs). It helps to strengthen management of leakage in water supply networks with the strategy of “divide and conquer” and continuous monitoring, and to implement targeted measures including active leakage detection, pressure management, speedy repair of water main with leakage and replacement or rehabilitation of water mains, to maintain the healthiness of the water supply networks. The numbers of DMAs by District Council districts are tabulated as follows:
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