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Lead exceedance in drinking water samples found under Enhanced Water Quality Monitoring Programme
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     A Government spokesman said today (June 22) that under the Enhanced Water Quality Monitoring Programme (Enhanced Programme), the Water Supplies Department (WSD) collected drinking water samples from 14 consumers' taps last week (June 13 to 17) and an exceedance in lead over the Hong Kong Drinking Water Standards was found in the water samples taken from a private non-domestic premises in Kwun Tong district.

     After the test results became available, the WSD promptly contacted the responsible persons of the premises concerned and the property management agent, and they promptly displayed notices at conspicuous locations of the building and informed all occupiers in the building to adopt appropriate preventive and mitigation measures, including using alternative drinking water sources (such as distilled water). The WSD also demanded that they employ a qualified consultant or person promptly to conduct a detailed investigation with a view to ascertaining the causes of the exceedance and implement corresponding rectification works.

     The WSD will continue to follow up on the progress of implementation of the mitigation and rectification measures, as well as provide assistance, if necessary. In case the responsible persons have not implemented effective mitigation and rectification measures within a reasonable period of time, the WSD could take corresponding actions in accordance with the Waterworks Ordinance in order to ensure the safety of drinking water for consumers.

     The WSD has extended the drinking water quality monitoring to consumers' taps by implementing the Enhanced Programme since 2017 to collect drinking water samples from consumers' taps in randomly selected premises to monitor water quality. The relevant statistics on weekly monitoring data at consumers' taps under the Enhanced Programme, including the above case, are available on the WSD's website
 
Ends/Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Issued at HKT 16:00
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