Leaky and pesky: dripping air cons continue to plague Hong Kong streets as little is done to punish negligent owners
Only two prosecutions resulted from almost 10,000 complaints filed this year
The scourge of dripping air conditioners across Hong Kong continues unabated as the city swelters through a scorching summer, with the government making only two prosecutions despite receiving almost 10,000 complaints this year.
In the first six months, 9,765 complaints about the spewing nuisances were made to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, with the department serving 416 notices, but only prosecuting 0.02 per cent of those responsible for the problem machines.
Concerned residents and public health experts complain that the puddles caused by the dripping units serve as breeding grounds for legionnaires’ disease, of which the elderly and the young – those with weaker immune systems – are particularly susceptible. Mosquito larvae can also make a home in these pools of putrid water.
Hong Kong is enduring an especially hot weekend with cranked-up air conditioners expected to produce bigger puddles. Temperatures have soared above 33 degrees Celcius, with the mercury rising over 35 in northern parts of the territory.
“I am gobsmacked by the number of prosecutions. I have made multiple complaints this year about dripping air conditioners and have seen very little action on the part of the department,” Mary Mulvihill, a concerned citizen, said. She has been crusading against the scourge for decades.
Originally from Ireland, Mulvihill moved to Hong Kong more than 20 years ago, after which she fought a lonely, endless campaign against this problem.
Mulvihill lives in Tsim Sha Tsui, where Nathan road – a popular tourist stretch – runs through. She said that the multiple dripping air conditioners might put off visitors coming to Hong Kong. The city had experienced a significant slump in the retail sector which relied heavily on tourism.
“How these air conditioners can continue to operate like this in one of Hong Kong’s premier tourism spots is beyond me,” Mulvihill said, suggesting the department consider immediate fines.
Dripping air conditioners have been a blight on Hong Kong for decades owing to poor quality enforcement along with an over reliance on indoor cooling. With the units poking out of windows and stacked above each other on high-rises, the collective seeping of numerous machines can in some places be as heavy as rainfall.
Last year the Post found that over the last decade, 170,407 complaints were made against the pesky problem with 5,256 nuisance notices served and only 12 prosecutions issued between 2004 and 2014.
Following the report, a spokesperson for the department said its inspectors were struggling with workload produced by the “substantial increase” of environmental hygiene complaint cases in the summer months due to the dripping air conditioners.
When the issue was raised in the Legislative Council in October 2015, the department pledged to review its practice of “recruiting extra contract staff in the summer months to support frontline staff in handling the problem”.
But no change in protocol has been made since that period.
In a statement to the Post this year on how it handles dripping air conditioners, a department spokesperson repeated the exact reply they gave last year.
“In most cases, the flat owners or occupants concerned would rectify the water dripping problem on their own accord [following the issue of a nuisance note],” they said.
