Hong Kong is flushing HK$800 million down the drain every year through water wastage

Ombudsman slams Water Supplies Department for wasting water and not setting targets for the resumption of flushing water, leaving homes ‘without water in the toilets for five days’

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Water Supplies Department workers repair a broken pipe at Canal Road West, in Causeway Bay. Photo: SCMP

Published: 7:28pm, 17 Apr 2018Updated: 10:31pm, 17 Apr 2018

Hong Kong has been pouring almost HK$800 million (US$102 million) down the drain annually for the past three years after failing to plug the fresh water lost from leaking pipes, according to an ombudsman’s report released on Tuesday.

And despite improving since 2006, the city still leaked 15 per cent of its fresh water from public pipes each year – three times the level of its regional rival, Singapore.

In December 2016, 14 months after the Office of the Ombudsman launched an investigation into the maintenance of government water mains, the Water Supplies Department listed “hotspots” – locations that suffered recurrent bursts – for intensive monitoring and regular repair.

Lowering Hong Kong’s wastage by just 5 per cent, would save enough water to fill nearly 40,000 swimming pools. Photo: Edward Wong

It also looked overseas – including to Singapore – for effective methods to reduce leakage.

In the past six years, Hong Kong has, on average, consumed 960 million cubic metres of fresh water annually, and lost 144 million cubic metres of it, according to the report.