************************************************************
The following is issued on behalf of the Housing Authority:
Four contractors have started to change or clean the filter cores for households of the 11 public rental housing (PRH) developments with excess lead in water.
A Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) spokesman said today (March 9) that, as mentioned from time to time, since the excess-lead-in-water incident the Government and the HA have taken a series of measures to minimise the inconvenience of tenants of the 11 affected PRH developments in gaining access to safe drinking water. These include, among other things, requesting the contractors concerned to install filters for affected households, and to regularly change or clean their filter cores for two years after installation, free of charge. Since these water filters have been used for some time, the four contractors have started to change or clean the filter cores for the households.
Depending on the brand of the filter and its manufacturer's instructions, the contractors will change or clean the filter cores for households. For most filter brands, the filter cores need to be changed once every six months. The contractors started, in February this year, to change the filter cores for households with these brands of filters. As for households with the other brand of filter, according to the manufacturer's instructions, these filter cores should be cleaned once every three months, and changed once within 12 months' time. The contractors cleaned the filter cores once for these households three months ago, and are now conducting the second round of cleaning.
The spokesman said that tenants should follow the manufacturer's instructions on the use of the filter to ensure its function and performance and the quality of the filtered water. For example, hot water should not be filtered, as it will affect the performance of the filter and water quality. The frequency of changing the filter core depends on the size of household and daily volume of water filtered. Filtered water should be used for drinking or cooking only. It is not necessary to use filtered water to wash food or utensils, which will shorten the life of the filter core. After using the water filter for some time, the outflow water capacity will inevitably be affected. When filtered water is not required, households may move the pin on the diverter valve such that water does not pass through the filter, and the outflow water capacity will increase. For enquiries on the use and maintenance of the water filters, tenants can call the contractor or the manufacturer's hotline (already provided to tenants). The contractor or manufacturer will pay a visit to find out more about the household's use of the water filter.
Ends/Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Issued at HKT 17:13
NNNN
