Residents fear for their safety as buildings shake and cracks appear in walls during MTR construction
Station work leaves flats without running water and homeowners asking why they were kept in the dark as buildings were sinking
Mary Chiu has been living in her flat in To Kwa Wan for the past 29 years, but about five years ago she noticed cracks in her flat widening and the water in her toilet cistern cutting out when she flushed – incidents that coincided with the construction of an MTR station in the area for the Sha Tin to Central link.
Still, even she was shocked to learn from media reports on Thursday that her home at 71 Maidstone Road had a bigger problem – it was one of the buildings in the area that had subsided beyond the statutory level.
Now residents are demanding that the MTR Corporation and the government take action to ensure their safety, and complaining that they had been kept in the dark about the problem.
Chiu said the crack in the wall of her flat had widened to the extent that a key could be inserted into it, while she and her neighbours had been forced to use fresh water to flush the toilet over the past few years.
But she said neither the government nor MTR Corp had offered to help, and it was difficult for residents to act collectively as the block did not have an owners’ association.
“Water supply is already a big issue, now we even need to worry about a possible housing problem in case the government needs us to leave because this building is deemed too dangerous to live in. I don’t know where can we go,” Chiu said.
