Hong Kong lacks truly independent water quality watchdog, lawmaker says after lead scare at new housing estate
Tests conducted by Democratic Party lawmakers in Kwai Chung show excessive lead content, three years after tainted-water scandal rocked the city
The prospect of lead contamination in Hong Kong drinking water reared its ugly head again on Thursday after samples from a new public housing estate were found to contain excessive levels of the heavy metal.
But water from two of the four flats involved was later certified safe by the government after separate tests showed levels to be within limits.
Democratic Party lawmaker Helena Wong Pik-wan called for a truly independent water quality watchdog. On Wednesday her party revealed that tests on eight flats in Kwai Chung indicated four had excessive lead content in the water.
The findings, announced by Wong and party member Andrew Wan Siu-kin, prompted the city’s Water Supplies Department to run more tests at affected flats in Kwai Tsui Estate, which was opened in April with 866 units for 2,400 people.
On Thursday night a spokesman for the department said those tests, carried out on samples from two of the four flats with excessive levels in the Democrats’ exercise, had shown lead was within limits, at 2 micrograms per litre.
