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The Chairman of the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) announced on July 24 that water sampling tests would be conducted for all public rental housing (PRH) estates, to determine whether the lead content in drinking water complied with the World Health Organization (WHO)'s guideline limit. On September 24, it was announced that systematic water sampling tests for PRH developments completed in and after 2005 had been completed. The Housing Department (HD) and the Water Supplies Department have now also completed water screening tests for all PRH estates completed before 2005.
The results announced today (November 18) belong to the last batch of PRH estates completed before 2005, which cover 30 PRH estates involving 338 water samples. All samples met the WHO's guideline limit for lead content in drinking water. Together with those announced in the past, a total of 2,634 water samples have been taken from 144 PRH estates completed before 2005. All samples were taken from the fresh water supply systems installed by the HA, and all of them met the WHO's guideline limit (see Annex).
As for the relief measures provided to tenants of the 11 estates in which water samples containing excess lead were found, the temporary water points for Kai Ching Estate, Kwai Luen Estate Phase 2, Wing Cheong Estate, Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate Phase 1, Hung Hom Estate Phase 2, Shek Kip Mei Estate Phase 2 and Yan On Estate have already been put into use. The works for the remaining four estates have been completed and the temporary water points are expected to be put into use within November. As for the water filters, except for a small number of households which have been difficult to contact, installation work for the 11 estates has been completed.
"As mentioned from time to time, we will keep in view the installation progress of the water filters and the temporary water points in the various estates, and cease distributing bottled water after having considered the actual circumstances. Currently, filter installation has been completed, and the temporary water points will all be put into use in the next few weeks. Once the temporary water points for Ching Ho Estate Phase 1, the last estate found to have excess lead in water, are put into use, the HD will announce arrangements for ceasing the distribution of bottled water to the 11 estates altogether, after allowing a period of adjustment," the HD spokesman said.
Ends/Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Issued at HKT 19:42
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