In September this year, there was an incident of live bugs in flushing water in Po Shek Wu Estate, Sheung Shui, and a number of residents complained about the large number of live bugs in the toilet. Po Shek Wu Estate concern group survey found that nearly 25% of the households interviewed said that live insects had appeared in the toilet at home, more than 35% of the respondents toilets also have backflow problems. Some interviewed residents said that there are mosquitoes and adult moths flying out from the bathroom to the water level, reflecting that the toilet problem has not only not improved, the situation is more serious than imagined.
The Po Shek Wu Estate Concern Group interviewed 134 households in November through paper and online questionnaires, nearly 25% of respondents said there were live insects in the toilet at home; more than 35% of residents said there was a back-up problem in the toilet, distributed on different floors. The survey also pointed out that more than 80% of the respondents said they were very worried and concerned about the pest and backflow situation in toilets, and admitted that the pest incident had caused anxiety and psychological impact on toilet use.
The Concern Group said that about 25% of the respondents had lived in public housing or Home Ownership Scheme flats and had not encountered pest infestation and backflow problems in the past, questioning the design of new housing estates to produce backflow and pest problems. Under the epidemic, residents are worried about the spread of the virus through sewage pipes.
The Concern Group pointed out that at present, the property management companies of the housing estates mainly improve the pest situation by pouring bleach into the affected drains and water tanks of the whole building, but some affected residents said that the bleach was ineffective and the smell of bleach might cause eye discomfort, tracheal allergy, skin allergy, etc.
The Concern Group suggested that the Housing Department should make reference to the disinfection method of LCSD swimming pools to deal with the problem of mosquitoes breeding in fresh water flushing toilets, and inspect all the pipes in the estate as soon as possible, including whether there is damage or cracks in the pipes leading to the entry of mosquitoes to lay eggs and breed, so as to solve the pest problem in the estate once and for all.
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