On March 15, the South China Morning Post carried a special supplement marking the 150th anniversary of the Water Supplies Department (WSD).
The department is organising a series of events to mark this important occasion. Perhaps this would be a good time to look at much-needed improvements in some of its operating procedures.
In May and June of last year, there were two serious disruptions in water supply in Kennedy Road and Macdonnell Road. I and other residents from the area reported these problems to the WSD. We were so unhappy with its response that many of us complained to our district councillor, James Tien.
We discovered that unlike other utilities, the WSD did not have a well-manned (that is, manned by qualified engineers) 24-hour emergency-service unit to cope with the variety of situations that can arise.
Consumers had to go through a customer-inquiry hotline to report a disruption.
The people who manned this hotline appeared simply to be go-betweens or messengers.