Thieves have stripped more than 400 iron gratings from a new reservoir in Yuen Long, with officials suspecting they have been sold as scrap metal.
Two employees of the Water Supplies Department yesterday morning found 433 drain covers were missing from the Tan Kwai Tsuen South Service Reservoir, in Tan Kwai Tsuen Road.
The cast iron gratings cost $200 each and officials believe they have been sold to mainland scrap metal merchants for about $20.
The gratings were stolen from water channels outside the main block of the service reservoir and accounted for 40 per cent of the site's covers, a spokeswoman for the Water Supplies Department said.
'It is the first time such a large quantity of cast-iron gratings has been stolen from our department-managed areas,' she said.
The spokeswoman said the department would look into security measures and make improvements if necessary.
The new service reservoir covers about 200,000 sq m and is due to start operating this month.