Democratic Party doesn't agree that Kwai Tsui's drinking water is safe despite what Water Supplies Department says
Government says water at estate is safe to drink, but Democratic Party says otherwise
Special tankers are still supplying water at Kwai Tsui, despite tests saying tap water is safe. Tests conducted by the government’s Water Supplies Department (WSD) have found that the amount of lead in the tap water at Kwai Tsui Estate is within safe limits. This contradicts previous tests by the Democratic Party.
The Democratic Party found earlier this week that the tap water at both blocks of the estate in Kwai Fong had dangerous levels of lead, making it unsafe to drink. In a statement, a WSD spokesman said the department took water samples from two flats in Bik Tsui House in the estate. The samples contained two micrograms of lead per litre of water. This is within the 10 micrograms safety limit set by the World Health Organisation.
The WSD’s results were lower than tests conducted by the Democratic Party, which found 10 and 16 micrograms of lead per litre of water in two samples taken from Bik Tsui House. Andrew Wan Siu-kin, a Democratic Party Legislative Councillor, disputed the government’s findings.
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“They only took two samples of drinking water from one block, while the Democratic Party took seven samples from the high and low floors of both blocks,” he said.
The WSD also said some of the units had their pipes replaced by the tenants before water testing, but Wan disputed this too. “They said one of the units had their taps replaced, but actually this is not the case,” he said.
The party used a testing company called ALS to test the samples of water they collected. The company is accredited by the government’s own Laboratory Accreditation Scheme.
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The government has yet to test water quality at Luk Tsui House, where 104 micrograms of lead per litre of water were found – around 10 times higher than the WHO’s safe limit. Wan said the Democratic Party has taken 10 more samples from the two blocks at the estate to conduct further testing.
The estate, which opened in April, has 866 homes, and can house 2,400 people.
The spokesman from the WSD recommended that people who are moving into these flats flush their taps. This involves running the taps for 15 minutes twice each day, for three days in a row.