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Residents collect fresh water at one of the temporary distribution points at Hung Hom Estate in Hung Hom. Photo: Sam Tsang

Hong Kong lead-in-water scare a ‘snowballing social disaster’, concern group warns, as three more housing estates affected

Hong Kong’s lead-in-water contamination scare is a “social disaster” that would “roll bigger and bigger like a snowball”, a concern group for residents warned, after three more public housing estates were dragged into the crisis.

GLORIA CHAN

Hong Kong’s lead-in-water contamination scare is a “social disaster” that would “roll bigger and bigger like a snowball”, a concern group for residents warned this morning, after three more public housing estates were dragged into the crisis.

Speaking on RTHK, Democratic Party vice-chairman Andrew Wan Siu-kin, convenor of the Drinking Water Victims Alliance, said the increasing number of public housing estates found to have excessive lead levels in their tap water exposed “a huge loophole” in the construction, supervision, and use of building material in the city’s housing developments.

“This is a social disaster which will only roll bigger and bigger like a snowball,” Wan said. “And it’s especially true for housing built in the past 10 years, as there’s so much material bought from mainland China.”

This is a social disaster which will only roll bigger and bigger like a snowball
Andrew Wan

Three more public housing estates were found to have excessive lead in their tap water yesterday, bringing the total number of estates involved to seven and affecting more than 15,000 households.

They are the Hung Hom Estate Phase 2, Shek Kip Mei Estate Phase 2, Tung Wui Estate, Kai Ching Estate, Kwai Luen Estate Phase 2, Wing Cheong Estate and Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate Phase 1.

Mrs Li, who lives in Kwai Luen Estate Phase 2, received a call from the Hospital Authority yesterday afternoon, telling her that her one-year-old child has excessive lead levels in his blood, with a reading of 7.6 mcg/dl.

The safety cap for vulnerable groups – children under six, breastfeeding mothers, and pregnant women – is 5 mcg/dl. Li’s child is one of 33 residents from the Kwai Luen Estate to have exceeded the cap.

READ MORE: High lead levels in blood samples of more children, breastfeeding women in Hong Kong as water contamination scare widens

“I wanted to cry, I was so angry,” Li said, her voice shaking. “A mother is supposed to protect her family but I didn’t do this well.”

Her baby has been fed with both breast milk and milk powder.

When the water scare broke out in Kowloon City’s Kai Ching Estate one month ago, Li started buying bottled water for her family, as the Kwai Luen Estate was built around the same time two years ago.

Residents of Kai Ching Estate arrive at United Christian Hospital in Kwun Tong for blood tests. Photo: David Wong
“When we moved in [over a year ago] the three of us always had stomach aches and each time we thought it was because we ate something dirty,” Li said, adding that her baby once had to stay in hospital for two nights due to diarrhoea. “Our stomach aches stopped once we started drinking bottled water – I have records to prove that,” she said.
My mind is blank. For now I just want my child to be healthy
Kwai Luen Estate Phase 2 resident Mrs Li

Li slammed the government for being slow to respond to residents’ needs. “[Authorities] should be proactively thinking how they could provide us with help, rather than always passively asking us what we want.”

Li said she had not thought about asking the government for compensation yet. “My mind is blank. For now I just want my child to be healthy,” she said. Her child will have an IQ test at a Health Department’s centre soon, then a second blood test in three months.

Wan urged the government to set up a scheme to subsidise residents to have blood tests in designated laboratories. “Many residents [in the affected estates] were so worried they paid for their own blood tests, but the government does not recognise those test results,” he said.

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