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Hong Kong’s Water Supplies Department faces bulk of criticism in tainted-water report

The head of the department has since sidestepped questions on accountability and faces growing calls to step down.

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Director of Water Supplies Enoch Lam Tin-sing. Photo: Nora Tam

Hong Kong could have tightened water quality standards more than two decades ago, according to an independent report on the lead-tainted water scandal.

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The release of the report from the judge-led commission of inquiry on Tuesday has renewed pressure for the director of water supplies, Enoch Lam Tin-sing, to resign.

The fact-finding report dedicated 20 paragraphs in its concluding remarks to list seven criticisms against the Water Supplies Department, which was longer than the coverage on the Housing Authority, contractors and plumbers combined.

Among the criticisms made against WSD was its inadequate understanding of the World Health Organisation Guidelines it adopted in 1994, which set a guide value on lead at 10 micrograms per litre of water.

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The report said WSD ought to have used the guidelines as the basis for developing its own water quality standard that would have addressed Hong Kong’s local requirement and situation.

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