Beyond lax safety standards, inquiry into last year’s tainted-water scare exposed insular approach and lack of coordination between departments
EDDIE.LEE@SCMP.COM
UPDATED : Thursday, 12 May, 2016, 12:20pm
Residents collect fresh water from a temporary distribution point at Kai Ching Estate. Photo: Sam Tsang
When a judge-led commission of inquiry was set up to probe the causes of Hong Kong’s lead-in-water scandal, it was expected to expose the city’s lax drinking water safety standards. But what it has also inadvertently revealed is the insular approach of government agencies and the silo-ed nature of how they operate.
The scandal broke in summer last year, when tests showed tap water at Kai Ching Estate in Kowloon City contained amounts of lead exceeding World Health Organisation standards. Government tests later found similar levels at other public housing estates, where pipes in flats were soldered with materials containing lead.
The inquiry commission was established to probe the causes of the excess lead found in drinking water in 11 public housing estates, affecting 29,000 households, and to make recommendations to ensure water safety.
The commission heard from 72 witnesses over 67 days of hearings and handed its report to Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying on Wednesday. The government is now considering whether to release the full report, or to redact certain information before release.
While the report’s recommendations are not yet public, what has been revealed during the hearings is a culture of little to no liaison between the departments, leading to questions as to why relevant authorities and regulators had not taken further steps in setting up a better monitoring system.
The word “unaware”, as well as variations expressing similar sentiments, was repeatedly uttered by various parties connected to the saga, from top policymakers to lower-level government officials, during the inquiry, which concluded in March this year.
The discovery of the excessive lead levels led to widespread public concern. Photo: Nora Tam
The principal government agencies involved in the case, in defending themselves against queries about their ability to ensure public safety, invariably argued that they had been doing their jobs within their own fields of expertise.
“With hindsight, had they been aware of the related risks, the Housing Authority and the Housing Department, I believe, would have put in place measures to prevent [lead from being used],” housing minister Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, who also chairs the authority, told the commission on the first day of the hearing in November last year.
“The government never underestimated the risks from the outset,” Cheung said.
The first sign of the silo-ed operation of the departments came when Deputy Director of Housing Ada Fung Yin-suen gave evidence after Cheung.
“The Housing Authority had not considered solder [used to connect pipes] a high-risk item that needed to be inspected separately,” she said.
Fung said the housing regulator had focused on the functional performance of the water supply installations.
“We need to make sure pipes won’t burst,” Fung said, adding that they had always sought expert advice from the industry and the Water Supplies Department on issues of water quality.
Fung, an architect by profession, said soldered pipes had all along been seen only as a part of the plumbing works.
She said water quality inspections were based on parameters, including acidity, water colour and turbidity, set out by the water authorities, adding that lead levels were not required to be tested before the scandal was exposed last summer.
To sum up, the Housing Authority, the developer of the affected public housing estates, said construction workers had used non-compliant soldering material without knowledge of the consequences.
A copper pipe and fittings on display at a press conference on preliminary findings from an investigation into the cause of the excessive lead content in drinking water. Photo: Edmond So
Meanwhile, the Water Supplies Department, the city’s water quality regulator, said evidence was clear that licensed plumbers knew they should have avoided using leaded solder.
In addition, the Housing Authority had certain statutory duties to ensure drinking water safety, a lawyer representing the Water Supplies Department said. The department said it required developers and contractors to ensure materials used in waterworks met specific standards.
Director of Water Supplies Enoch Lam Tin-sing also stressed to the inquiry that all parties were tasked with different responsibilities.
“Our duty to ensure water safety had its limitations,” Lam told the commission.
The department argued that construction of waterworks required supervision by authorised personnel such as licensed plumbers, a practice in line with those of many Western countries.
But contractors, such as China State, which subcontracted works to smaller plumbing engineering companies like Ho Biu Kee, responded by saying the existing approval and certification system for plumbing materials needed review.
The inquiry learned that construction workers had used non-compliant soldering material. Photo: Sam Tsang
A lawyer for another contractor, Paul Y, argued that the Housing Authority had fundamental failings – at any time, the authority could have required the contractors to test for the presence of lead in the water, but that would have been a variation of the contract, meaning it would have had to pay for those tests.
Effectively the parties at the very top had cascaded down their responsibility to the person at the very bottom, namely the licensed plumber.
CONTRACTOR PAUL Y
“The Water Supplies Department delegated its responsibility for the installation to licensed plumbers, but there was no robust training or vocational requirements for licensed plumbers,” the contractor said.
“Effectively the parties at the very top had cascaded down their responsibility to the person at the very bottom, namely the licensed plumber.”
A plumbing subcontractor admitted he never thought of ensuring all pipes were lead-free at Kai Ching Estate, where his firm carried out work before the scandal erupted.
Ho Man-piu, managing director of Ho Biu Kee Construction Engineering, told the commission he was unaware that lead-free solder had to be used, and that the responsibility of ensuring the water was untainted fell to the plumber.
The contractor denied sourcing the cheaper lead solder sticks to cut costs.
“I did not even have the basis of knowing which is cheaper,” he told the inquiry.
As interested parties wait for the report to be released, the question remains as to whether residents will pursue compensation.
Kwai Tsing district councilor Ng Kim-sing said residents were anticipating the report.
“We will consult lawyers to study the liability issues once the report is released, to see how residents can seek claims from the relevant parties,” he said.
The residents are eligible to claim compensation if inconvenience and stress resulting from the incident can be proved.
LAWYER DANIEL WONG
However, evidence given by any person before the commission, according to the Commission of Inquiry Ordinance, shall not be admissible against the person in any civil or criminal proceedings.
But some lawyers believe there may still be legal avenues for compensation.
“The residents are eligible to claim compensation if inconvenience and stress resulting from the incident can be proved,” lawyer Daniel Wong Kwok-tung told the Post.
But he said claims in any civil action would need to be substantiated by medical evidence, such as lead poisoning caused by contaminated water, otherwise they would likely win only small amounts as compensation or nominal damages.
“The lead in water scandal aroused public concerns ... However, we still need to pass the tests of ‘causation’ ... when parents claim compensation for their babies suffering symptoms of low intellectual capacity,” said Wong. “The tests for causation are rigid.”
“The court’s hands are tied even though profound public interests are involved in this case,” he said.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1943981/silo-culture-what-lead-water-scandal-tells-us
