Shau Kei Wan experiences water supply cuts

Water supply was cut in several areas of Shau Kei Wan on Sunday morning, affecting residents and businesses, as authorities rushed to fix the problem.

While the Water Supplies Department confirmed that the leak point had been identified, officials were unable to say when repairs would be completed.

The department deployed water trucks to serve affected neighbourhoods, including Tung Yuk Court, Yiu Tung Estate and Ming Wah Dai Ha.

Speaking to reporters at the scene, the department's director, Roger Wong, suggested that an ageing pipe could be the cause of the water supply outage.

"The pipe concerned is a cast iron pipe, and that is [an] old material that has been used for many many years, so due to ageing, the material becomes brittle and so it will not provide any initial sign. I think this is the difficulty that we need to handle," he said.

Wong also noted that the department has already implemented a pipe replacement programme targeting older cast iron and asbestos cement pipes.

"In the next few years, we will replace eight kilometres of these kinds of pipes all over the district," he said.

Meanwhile, the department’s chief engineer, Lin Tang-tai, described the leakage as relatively complex. He explained that the drinking water did not surface as expected and is suspected to have flowed out to sea through storm water drains, significantly complicating detection efforts.

He said the team was able to initially locate the leak using changes in water network pressure near the Shau Kei Wan tram tracks, along with robots and sonar technology.

However, Lin noted that the site lies at a busy intersection with heavy traffic, requiring temporary road diversions. While excavation is now underway, he said it remains difficult to predict when normal supply will resume.

Lin estimated that more than 10,000 households could be affected. He also cautioned that as valves are turned on and off during the repair process, the scope of the disruption may shift.

Many residents reported waking up to find no water for drinking or flushing.

"We called our security guard at around 6am, but the Water Supplies Department wasn't aware of the situation and said that everything was fine," said an affected resident surnamed Cheung.

"But then more and more people realised there was no water, so we called again, and only then did they start to become aware. There is a bit of a flaw with those automated phone systems – they don't give you a proper response.

"We don't even have toilet flushing water at the moment. We absolutely have to stock up on drinking water."

A woman surnamed Wong, chairperson of the Incorporated Owners' Corporation of Eastway Towers, said she initially thought the problem was building-related, only to discover that the entire Shau Kei Wan Main Street East was affected.

"We immediately notified the district councillors to come and assist. We then waited for the water trucks to arrive, but were giving water bottles in the meantime," she said.

"There are a lot of elderly residents living on Main Street East, so we are trying to help distribute water to them."

She added that local businesses were also growing anxious, fearing the outage could hurt their operations.

Cheung, the owner of a nearby restaurant, said he had to buy large quantities of bottled water. While the restaurant still had some residual water in its pipes, he estimated it would not last the day and that he might be forced to close temporarily.

He said that the morning's turnover was at least one-third less than usual.

Edited by Aaron Tam ...