Plumbers work overtime to repair water meters

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.