In a report released yesterday, the Commission of Inquiry into Excess Lead Found in Drinking Water confirms that leaded solder was the direct cause of the excess heavy metal in the drinking water of 11 public housing estates. But it also severely criticises relevant authorities including the Water Supplies Department and Housing Department for a "collective failure" and "buck- passing" in the aftermath. In the end, it was the residents who suffered the most.
After the report was released, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor held a press conference with other officials.Four officials - Secretary for Development Paul Chan Mo-po, Secretary for Transport and Housing Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, Director of Water Supplies Enoch Lam Tin-sing, and Director of Housing Stanley Ying Yiu-hong – apologised to the public at the press conference for relevant responsibilities.
Such a scene is rarely seen that four senior officials would apologise together at one occasion.However, given the problems and state of affairs revealed in the report, such "belated apologies" may fail to pour oil on troubled waters, as residents in affected housing estates and the opposition will likely continue pursuing the issue.
The report was released by the independent Commission of Inquiry, whose members include Judge Andrew Chan Hing-wai and former Commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption Alan Lai Nin. In the past, the government would also have set up independence commissions for inquiry after major unexpected incident occurred.However, reports they released afterwards were often too lengthy without clear-cut conclusions, hence the public could hardly understand what they said.But this time, the report by the Commission of Inquiry into Excess Lead Found in Drinking Water is based on facts and substantial, pinpointing to the causes and problems.So much so that even relevant authorities have to come out to apoligise and take the blame.The work of the Commission is down-to-earth and effective.
As a matter of fact, what is most important in the report lies in that it is not limited to pointing out that leaded solder is the direct cause and the four government departments, contractors and plumbing subcontractors all must bear different responsibilities – these problems need not be pointed out by the Commission as citizens have already had the answers in their minds.What is valuable of the report lies in that it points out a more serious and basic reality, that is, the regulatory and monitoring systems of relevant authorities have already been reduced to no more than a"paper system", existing in name only.
The report points out that given the current regulations of the Water Supplies Department and Housing Department, there in fact is a considerably perfect regulatory and monitoring system to avoid using leaded solder on water pipes in housing estates.But the problem lies in that the checking system has functioned as if it did not exist at all as in practice no department performs its duty of supervision, so much so that the main contractors, subcontractors and plumbing subcontractors could have exploited the loopholes to arbitrarily used cheap leaded solder. The checking system has turned out to be on paper only, and when the problem was exposed the relevant departments, contractors and plumbing subcontractors passed the buck to each other.
Such a criticism by the report could be said to have pinpointed the root cause of the problem.A regulatory and monitoring system could have been worked out as watertight as possible, but in practice"all checks were passed easily as there was no check at all".In this way, how could it be possible for problems not to crop out? What has caused the so-called"lead-tainted water incident"in fact was not leaded solder but the artificial, irresponsible bureaucratism.
Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor did not evade this problem.She frankly admitted at the press conference: the investigation by the Commission of Inquire not only is helpful for the Water Supplies Department and Housing Department to improve the current system but also rings a warning bell for other department.
Since the handover, whether government departments have kept up with times to refine their work efficiency and quality and principal officials appointed under the accountability system and civil servants to improve their sense of responsibility and work style, or on the contrary have remained experts on paperwork and continued following the old track or even resorted to the "culture of avoiding doing more" in order to avoid pressure from public opinion? This is an important message brought out by the "lead-tainted water incident" and the inquiry report. This is also a focus of attention in society in recent years and a source of some citizens' resentment. 01 June 2016
