Plumber Qiu Tianpei prepares new water meters at the maintenance station where he works in Jing'an district. His fingers are bandaged because of heavy work in difficult conditions.[XIAO JUNWEI/CHINA DAILY]

City hotline received 10,000 calls for help after pipes froze and malfunctioned

A city maintenance worker's hands－swollen, scarred, bruised and bandaged－reflect the rush to repair the thousands of water meters and pipes that broke during a cold snap that brought the lowest temperatures in three decades to Shanghai.

The photos of Qiu Tianpei's hands, which have gone viral on social networking platforms, are a testament to the nearly 100 residential water meters he has fixed this week, restoring the tap water supply to customers of the Shanghai Municipal Water Supply Administration.

Shanghai endured its lowest temperature this year, minus 7.2 C, on Sunday morning, and as water froze across the city, it expanded, breaking pipes and making water meters malfunction. The water administration's hotline received more than 10,000 repair requests each day from Monday to Wednesday, more than triple the usual number.

"Many of my colleagues slept for a few hours in the office and relied on instant noodles for quick meals to save time for the repair work," said Qiu, a 47-year-old native of Deyang city, Sichuan province.

Li Xiaofei, director of the maintenance station in Jing'an district where Qiu works, said his 14 workers have repaired water meters for more than 1,000 households in the past three days, the equivalent of a typical workload for a month.

"All of our repairmen are working around the clock, but we are still falling behind what's needed. Nearly one-third of the water meters in the old residential communities in the area are broken. We will have to fight for another several days," Li said.

Qiu said it takes him between five minutes and an hour to repair a water meter, depending on conditions.

"Regardless of how much time I need to spend there, I won't leave before the water supply is restored," he said. "It hardly helps to keep my hands warm if I put on gloves, which will get wet in seconds. It seems more important to help residents solve their difficulties than keep my hands warm."

The volume of repairs means the plumbers must postpone their visits home for Spring Festival in early February.

One political adviser said the emergency situation highlights the need for rigorous routine maintenance and repairs.

"If the aging water meters are replaced during regular maintenance, and the old water pipes are given insulation layers, we can cope with extreme weather calmly," An Yiqing, a member of the local political advisory body, said during the ongoing local annual session.

Plumber Qiu Tianpei prepares new water meters at the maintenance station where he works in Jing'an district. His fingers are bandaged because of heavy work in difficult conditions.[XIAO JUNWEI/CHINA DAILY]