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The Chief Executive, Mr C Y Leung, met the media at the ground floor lobby of the Office of the Chief Executive at Tamar today (July 17). Also present were the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Carrie Lam; the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung; and the Secretary for Development, Mr Paul Chan. Following is the transcript of remarks at the question-and-answer session of the media session:
Reporter: Will government officials be held accountable if they are found to be responsible for the incident? And will you consider a territory-wide test on water? Thank you.
Chief Executive: I'll leave the second question to the Secretary for Transport and Housing. As to the first question, we are giving a pretty wide and all-embracing brief, terms of reference, to the commission of inquiry, and the question of responsibility will be covered by the commission. Of course, as I said at the beginning, the exact terms of reference will be a matter for discussion between Government and the chairman of the commission.
Secretary for Transport and Housing: As far as the Housing Authority is concerned, our immediate task is two-fold. First, to make sure that despite the current incidents, the residents concerned will still be provided with alternative fresh water supply that is safe. So this is what we are trying to do - try to, through the main contractors, to install downpipes from the rooftop water tank to each floor, so that the inconvenience to individual households will be reduced.
At the same time, the Housing Authority will be, actually we are talking to the main contractors regarding the non-compliance with contract conditions. So we will make sure that, first of all, the contractor will make good whatever is done wrong, and secondly the contractor has liability and if so then of course we will make sure that the rights of the Housing Authority will be fully safeguarded.
Reporter: But is the Government too passive and pragmatic, insisting that it will only be carrying out water tests in public housing buildings built in 2013 and thereafter, even after Democratic Party announced that Ngau Tau Kok lower estate and Shui Chuen O Estate in Sha Tin, there are problematic water tested? So do you think the Government should step up testing for water in more estates?
Chief Executive: Our first priority is to identify as soon as we can the source of contamination, and to focus our work and the testing of water samples onto certain estates in Hong Kong will help us in that regard.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Friday, July 17, 2015
Issued at HKT 18:17
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