WSD - Quality Water Supply Scheme for Buildings

Introduction

To avoid failures in flushing supply, building owners and property managers have to maintain their internal plumbing systems properly. To encourage the responsible parties to do this and with the endorsement of the Advisory Committee on the Quality of Water Supplies¹, the Water Supplies Department (WSD) launched the Flushing Water Plumbing Quality Maintenance Recognition Scheme in July 2013. The scheme was re-titled "Quality Water Supply Scheme for Buildings - Flushing Water" (the Scheme) in March 2015.

E-Application

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Objectives
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The Scheme aims to:
1. strengthen the capability of building management agents to achieve value-added performance in meeting the expectation of consumers with respect to the reliability of flushing system;
2. give recognition to those building management agents who can demonstrate consistent compliance of the prescribed criteria under the Scheme;
3. assist the owners and building management agents in conducting self-assessments on plumbing conditions and to identity areas for necessary maintenance; and
4. minimise the failure frequency of inside services of flushing system.
The Scheme
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Participation of the Scheme is voluntary and the Scheme is a separate scheme from the current Quality Water Supply Scheme for Buildings - Fresh Water. The target groups to join the Scheme are the property owners and management agents of buildings in general. They shall submit applications to the WSD using Form C (PDF / Word) and Annex I to Form C (PDF / Word) (available on http://www.wsd.gov.hk). Besides, "Guidelines for Cleansing Flushing Water Tanks" are available on the WSD website.

*To enhance the Scheme, WSD has added a new component (i.e. Y-Strainer/ Strainer (s)) on inspection of the plumbing systems in Table 1 of Annex I to Form C, qualified persons should include this new component for their inspections on or after 1 September 2021.

Benefits of Joining the Scheme

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Successful buildings will be awarded certificates to recognise their proper maintenance of the flushing water plumbing systems. The names of the buildings, the owners' corporations and management agents are shown on the certificates to commend their contributions. The certificates or their copies could be displayed in those awarded buildings, stationeries and promotional materials, subject to the WSD's guidelines. The certificates are classified into three grades according to the length of the continuous period for which a building has joined the Scheme:

Type of certificate	Length of continuous participation*	Validity
Blue - new application	less than 3 years	1 year
Blue - renewal	less than 3 years	2 years
Silver - renewal	3 years or more but less than 5 years	2 years
Gold - renewal	5 years or more	2 years

*For continuous participation, renewal applications have to be made within 3 months before or after the expiry date of the current certificates.

Renewals made more than 3 months after the expiry date will be considered as new applications and the validity periods of such new certificates will be reset to 1 year, starting from the new approval dates. The certificates under the Scheme are issued in recognition of proper maintenance of the plumbing systems of the buildings concerned. They are properties of the WSD, and are subject to continuous satisfactory maintenance of the systems during the validity period.

Assessment of Applications
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The applications will be assessed according to the following criteria:
1. Inspection of the flushing plumbing systems (including water pipe, pump, filter, water tanks and Y-Strainer/ Strainer (s)) - they should be inspected at least once every 3 months by qualified persons (such as licensed plumbers, building services engineers or building surveyors) and is found to be in good condition. All defects identified in the inspections are promptly rectified by qualified persons.
  
  Alternatively, the applicant may select to provide the following information/documents that indicate the buildings under application are administered by a robust maintenance system (instead of filling in Part D and Table 1 of Annex I to Form C and submitting the document under item 3 of Part E of Form C for the WSD's consideration:
  - the names of the buildings under application;
  - the composition and strength of the responsible maintenance team with adequate in-house qualified professionals and technical staff responsible for the concerned buildings;
  - a copy of the maintenance contract;
  - the mechanism in handling routine tasks and emergencies; and
  - the relevant performance pledge/targets with respective statistics in the previous 12 months from the submission date of application/renewal application
2. Cleansing of tanks - the flushing water tanks should be cleansed at least once every 6 months.
Administration of the Scheme
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4% of the approved applications will be selected by the WSD for on-site audit checking to ensure compliance of the requirement of the Scheme by the applicant on proper maintenance of the internal flushing water plumbing systems. For any major non-compliance that can seriously affect the effectiveness of the Scheme identified during the above check, such as incomplete checking records or non-compliance with assessment criteria etc., the applicant shall rectify the non-compliance with the WSD’s verification within 3 months or at a reasonable time agreed by WSD from the date of the WSD’s notice or, otherwise the certificate will be invalidated and the applicant shall return it to the WSD.
Confidentiality of Applications
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The WSD will keep all details of the applications confidential and will only publish the names of successful applicants. In this regard, the applicant should handle all direct/referred enquiries/requests for such details, and is held fully accountable and responsible for such disclosure.
Change of Building Management Agent
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For change of building management agent during the validity period of the certificate, the new agent with the support from the owners/owners' corporations/mutual aid committees has to submit within one month after the change Form D "Undertaking Form for Incoming Building Management Company" (PDF / Word) (available on http://www.wsd.gov.hk) to the WSD for the certificate to remain valid. This is to ensure that the new building management agent will continue proper maintenance of the flushing systems in the building that the outgoing company has undertaken to do so.
Application and Renewal Fees
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There is no new application or renewal fees.
Frequently Asked Questions
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1. How to form and operate an owners' corporation?
  
  Answer: "Formation of Owners' Corporation" in the Home Affairs Department Homepage (available on http://www.had.gov.hk) encourages and assists owners to form owners' corporations for effective building management.
2. How to get financial assistance?
  
  Answer: The Buildings Department pamphlet "Building Safety Loan Scheme" (available on http://www.bd.gov.hk) provides the details that individual owners of all types of private buildings (including domestic, composite, commercial and industrial buildings) can apply for financial assistance in carrying out works for improving the safety of their buildings (including water supply plumbing systems).
How to Apply
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The application can be submitted through the following channels:
1. Online – Online Application Platform
2. By post – 47^th Floor, Immigration Tower, 7 Gloucester Road, Waichai, Hong Kong
3. By email – wsdinfo@wsd.gov.hk
4. By fax – 2824 0578
Enquiry
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Enquiry about the details of the Scheme and application can be made through the WSD telephone enquiry hotline or by fax or by e-mail.

Enquiry hotline : 2824 5000
Fax : 2824 0578
E-mail : wsdinfo@wsd.gov.hk
Website : http://www.wsd.gov.hk

Note:

The predecessor of the then Advisory Committee on Water Resources and Quality of Water Supplies which was retitled Advisory Committee on Water Supplies in April 2016.