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"Most of the COMAC's recommendations in preventing water main bursts are for boosting our current endeavour to reduce the number of main bursts.
"The other recommendations would need consultation with other government departments and relevant authorities to look into their practicalities, in particular the legal aspects in connection with punishing the roadwork contractors for damaging water mains," he said.
The spokesman also pointed out that there was no water supply system in the world that was totally free from water main bursts or leaks.
"The principal reasons behind most main bursts in Hong Kong, about 80 per cent of the total number of main bursts are the extreme limitation of space and high population density, which resulted in congested underground utility services.
"Furthermore, the rapid and large scale developments and redevelopments as well as major infrastructural projects in Hong Kong which has no parallel in other major cities caused an enormous amount of external interference and disturbance of the underground water mains.
"The department has all along been working faithfully and consistently on proper preventive maintenance and timely replacement of aged water mains," he said.
"These are recognised by the water supply industry worldwide as the best means of ensuring effective functioning of a supply system.
"We have been doing our best with the available financial and staff resources to tackle the problem of main bursts in order to minimise inconvenience to the public. We will continue to strive for improvement to the service we are responsible for providing to the people of the Hong Kong," said the spokesman.
End
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