The Government decided to conduct water testing in all newly-constructed public housing estates to ease public concerns on water quality following the incident in Hong Kong.

It was announced after a cross-departmental meeting on 16 July convened by the Marine and Water Bureau, with representatives from the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, the Health Bureau, the Housing Bureau, the Infrastructure Development Office and the Macao Water Supply Company Limited.

Officials re-iterated that the current mechanism had a set of strict supervising procedures over water quality: water was tested at least twice before distributing to household, plus a regular testing for the level of metals.

All results shown that water in Macao is safe for consumption and meets the World Health Organization’s standards.

In addition, the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau would examine the public water supply network regularly and the Macao Water Supply Company Limited would submit a periodic report on water quality to the authorities.

Considering the situation in Hong Kong, where excessive lead content was found in drinking water in public housing estates, the Government had asked the Company to strengthen its water testing procedures to further safeguard the quality of water supply.