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SDEV Blog: Battling Floods with Speed to Strengthen City's resilience
12 October 2025
Secretary for Development Bureau, Ms Bernadette LINN Hon-ho invited Director of Drainage Services Department, Mr Ringo MOK Wing-cheong, and senior engineers Mr Ronald LAI Hong-ho and Mr Chris LAM Wai-wah, to elucidate the strategies of tackling flood risk in Hong Kong. Two frontline staffs also shared their working experiences under extreme weather conditions.
Mr MOK stated that the department would hold emergency response meetings to formulate response strategies when a typhoon is predicted to arrive. Taking the recent Super Typhoon "Ragasa" as an example, the department made advance preparations and held a joint press conference with the Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD) and the Home Affairs Department (HAD) to announce the latest flood risk assessment and explain the corresponding response measures. Mr MOK added that this was the first time the DSD used its self-developed "Mosaic Model Map (M³)" for flood risk assessment. The system combines hydraulic models with the data from The Hong Kong Observatory to identify region that is prone to a higher flooding risk for the department to implement site-specific measures such as installing flood barriers and deploying powerful pumping robots on standby in advance.
In addition, the DSD will activate the Emergency Control Centre (ECC) to assess the situation and coordinate the deployment of emergency response teams, including pumping robots, to increase the effectiveness on handling flooding incidents. Mr LAM mentioned that the centre operated continuously for over 70 hours during Super Typhoon "Ragasa" last month. With the collaborative efforts of frontline and supporting staffs, all flooding cases were handled within one to two hours. Mr LAI explained that the department would select appropriate pumping robots based on the flooding situation and terrain, and assigned professional to select suitable discharge point at a higher-level drainage system to minimize the impact of flooding in a speedy manner.
The relevant article was published on "My Blog" of Development Bureau's website. To view the article, please click the link below (Chinese only):
https://www.devb.gov.hk/tc/home/my_blog/index_id_1594.html?y=2025&p=1
The Director of Drainage Services, Mr Ringo MOK Wing-cheong, stated that taking the recent Super Typhoon "Ragasa" as an example, the DSD used its self-developed "Mosaic Model Map (M³)" system for the first time to conduct flood risk assessments, thereby enabling case-specific response.
Senior Engineer on duty at the DSD's Emergency Control Centre (ECC), Mr Chris LAM Wai-wah, mentioned that the ECC operated continuously for over 70 hours during Super Typhoon "Ragasa". Colleagues collaborated closely and demonstrated strong professionalism.
Senior Engineer, Mr Ronald LAI Hong-ho, said that the department would deploy appropriate pumping robots according to the flooding situation and different terrains, and professionals would determine a suitable spot at a higher-level drainage systems for discharging the accumulated water.
Drainage Foreman, Mr LAI Yee-ming (pictured above, first right), noted that monitoring devices and signage would be installed before the drainage is cleaned to ensure safety, and high-pressure water trucks would be required for desilting in certain drainage pipe. The operator of Mobile Powerful Pumping Robot, Mr CHENG Wai-man (pictured below, first left), agreed that the mobile powerful pumping robot works ten times faster than a portable pump, and is more efficient since it can operate and discharge water simultaneously by remote control.