Call for more stringent water tests at new Hong Kong public housing estates before residents move in
Idea is to involve Water Supplies Department, Housing Authority and main contractor in checks before people start using new facilities
The water and soldering materials of pipes installed in public housing estates should be subjected to more layers of stringent checks and tests for levels of lead and other heavy metals before flat occupants move in, the chairman of a Housing Authority review committee said yesterday.
Three layers of checks should be undertaken, by the estate's main contractor, the authority and the Water Supplies Department, committee chairman Cheung Tat-tong said.
The soldering materials should also be centrally procured by the main contractor so as to avoid the use of anything substandard, according to recommendations in the committee's interim report, issued yesterday on the lead-in-water crisis afflicting public housing estates.
At least 139 people, mostly children under six, had blood lead levels exceeding the WHO standard of 5mcg per decilitre.
"Looking back, we now know we did not have sufficient knowledge and awareness of the risks [of lead in soldering materials]," Secretary for Transport and Housing Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung said.
He accepted the committee's recommendations and urged the authority to improve its monitoring system.
Under the committee's proposal, main contractors should improve measures for ongoing and future projects, such as "central procurement of soldering materials, quarantine of soldering materials upon delivery to site, recording of the on-site movement of soldering materials [and] frequent on-site checks using quick test methods".
The report criticises current quality controls for failing "to target soldering materials as a high-risk item" and failing to focus on the presence of lead or other heavy metals in the fresh water supply system.
It suggests that the authority require the main contractors to test water samples for heavy metals, to submit and comply with a management plan covering stringent supervision of plumbing subcontractors and on-site monitoring.
The main contractors must also ensure workers receive sufficient training on requirements about soldering joints before construction starts.
The government has finished testing water samples of public estates built after 2005 and is now seeking an objective way to check the water at the remaining estates, for which there is no detailed timetable yet.
"Public housing estates built before 2005 do not use copper pipes, or the soldering method," Anthony Cheung said. "Their risks are lower."
Helena Wong Pik-wan, the Democratic Party lawmaker who first exposed the lead scandal, criticised the report for not attributing responsibility to anyone.
"Is there any government official being held responsible? No. Not even an apology [was given]," she said.
The eight-member committee is due to submit its final report towards the end of this year.
