EDDIE LEE EDDIE.LEE@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Friday, 06 November, 2015, 2:57pm
UPDATED : Friday, 06 November, 2015, 2:57pm
Deputy Director of Housing Ada Fung Yin-suen gave evidence on Friday. Photo: Felix Wong
Housing Authority staff never checked whether lead was present in pipe joints when they inspected public housing flats under construction, a top housing official today told an inquiry into contaminated drinking water at 11 estates.
Giving evidence on the fifth day of the hearing, Deputy Director of Housing Ada Fung Yin-suen said the authority, as developers of public housing schemes, would check pipe joints in flats under construction by visual inspection.
“But not for any presence of lead,” she said.
The official said the authority focused on the operational performance of the water supply works in those homes.
“Unlike a room door that can be checked individually, plumbing works had all along been inspected as a whole,” she said. “Our focus was on whether the pipes functioned properly when our site staff inspected them.”
She declined to say whether the presence of lead in solder could have been spotted with the naked eye by site inspectors.
READ MORE: Hong Kong’s lead-in-drinking-water crisis: everything you need to know
William Wong SC, representing the Water Supplies Department, asked how often Housing Authority staff had carried out site checks.
Fung said inspections were not done on a regular basis.
“Our supervisors, in accordance with relevant guidelines, would inspect sites when the construction works had reached certain stages, say, with 10 per cent of works completed,” she said. “Checking is possible only when some jobs have been done.”
Fung said the authority had not been aware of health risks posed by solder that contained lead before the scandal broke.
Excessive lead was found in materials used to solder pipes in flats on 11 public housing estates, prompting the government to set up the commission to investigate.
The inquiry will ascertain the causes of excess lead found in drinking water and make recommendations to ensure water safety. The hearings will continue into January.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1876244/housing-authority-staff-didnt-check-lead-while