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LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES
Water Works
The first stage of the 20-year programme for the replacement or rehabilitation of some 3 050 kilometres of watermains, which commenced in December 2000, is under way. Construction is in progress on the water treatment works in Tai Po and for the additional service reservoirs, pumping stations and water supply networks in Kowloon West and East, Hong Kong Island, Pok Fu Lam (including the Cyberport project), Tseung Kwan O, Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun, Yuen Long, Tin Shui Wai and North Lantau (for the Hong Kong Disneyland project). The major improvement work on the sea water supply system for Central Kowloon and Tsuen Wan continues. Continuing planning works are in hand to increase the water supply capacity to meet demands from new developments in the Central, Western and south-western areas on Hong Kong Island; Kwun Tong, Tsuen Wan, Kwai Tsing, Yuen Long, North Lantau, Tseung Kwan O; and the north-eastern and north-western New Territories. Major design works are focused on the provision of additional service reservoirs, pumping stations and water supply networks in North Point, Quarry Bay, Pok Fu Lam, Western, Central and Wan Chai areas on Hong Kong Island; Kowloon East, West Kowloon Reclamation; Yau Tong; Tuen Mun, Yuen Long, Tai Po, Tin Shui Wai, Tseung Kwan O, and North Lantau.
With the aim of promoting direct consumption of water from taps, strategies and implementation plans are being developed in consultation with the Advisory Committee on the Quality of Water Supplies to encourage proper maintenance of internal plumbing systems and regular cleaning of water tanks in buildings.
To mark the '150 Years of Water Supply in Hong Kong' and to raise the public interest in water supply, a series of educational and publicity activities, including the publication of a book on the history of water supply and the issue of commemorative stamps, was launched in March.
Water Accounts and Customer Relations
The number of consumer accounts continues to rise at a rate of about 3 per cent per year and the consumer account base expanded to approximately 2.48 million accounts at the end of 2001. To further improve the customer relations, a new monolingual (separately in Chinese and English) Water and Sewage Charges Bill, which provides additional information, such as monthly consumption history and average monthly water charge, was introduced on January 1. The Water Supplies Department continues to act as the agent to collect general sewage charges on behalf of the Drainage Services Department.
Efforts to promote the autopay service continued, and the number of consumer accounts using autopay for payment of water charges reached 348 140, or about 14 per cent of all the consumers. The Payment-by-Phone service was also well received and about 20 per cent of the total payments received were made through this service by the end of the year. As a result of Hongkong Post taking over the counter collection service from the Sub-treasuries and the New Territories District Offices from October 3, water bills can now be paid at the 126 post offices.
The department announced in August that its achievements against performance targets for the past year showed improvement over those of the previous year in some areas. Most achievement rates were close to, or reached, 100 per cent.
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