Letters | First Sars, now Covid-19: how many disease outbreaks will it take for Hong Kong to improve building design?

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Food and Environmental Hygiene Department staff arrive to clean a public housing block in Tsing Yi on February 12, amid concerns that the coronavirus might have spread through the drainage system. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 6:30am, 12 Mar 2020Updated: 6:30am, 12 Mar 2020

I am writing to raise the issue of building design making possible the rapid spread of communicable diseases like Sars and Covid-19. In my opinion, the Hong Kong government could have done much better in this regard.

During the Sars outbreak in 2003, more than 100 residents of Block E of Amoy Gardens were infected. An investigation showed that the inadequate drainage system was among the causes: some of the U-shaped traps of floor drains were dried up, such that air contaminated with droplets of sewage could enter the flats on different floors.

Moreover, the updraft in the lightwell also sped up the spread of the virus. In response, experts including the WHO recommended modifying the design in different ways to prevent future outbreaks of communicable diseases.

Unfortunately, the Hong Kong government did not seem to learn from that experience. After Sars, the government reviewed the Buildings Ordinance and the Buildings Department suggested drainage system design improvements.

However, not only were these improvements not made mandatory, the Housing Department, in 2016, also started allowing public housing tenants to modify bathroom pipes with a written application. This could be the reason for the spread of Covid-19 in a Tsing Yi housing estate, where an altered vent pipe could have allowed foul air to enter a flat.

The government should not waste any more time in putting into practice what it has learned from the Sars and Covid-19 outbreaks. Building design should never again play a part in a disease outbreak.

Alvin Chung, Fanling

Thank you for lessening quarantine pain

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.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}Letters | First Sars, now Covid-19: how many disease outbreaks will it take for Hong Kong to improve building design?

Letters | First Sars, now Covid-19: how many disease outbreaks will it take for Hong Kong to improve building design?