Water seepage on private premises is primarily a matter of building management and maintenance for property owners and occupants. If the water seepage problem causes public health nuisance, poses a risk to the structural safety of a building or causes wastage of a supply, the Government will consider intervening by exercising the relevant statutory powers.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department deals with public health nuisance, while the Buildings Department possesses building survey expertise. Together, they have set up Joint Offices in various districts to handle reports of water seepage through a one-stop service to the public. This has helped speed up investigation and identification of water seepage sources, and improve the success rate of resolving water seepage problems.
Apart from reorganising the 19 District Regional Offices into four Regional Joint Offices (RJOs) progressively since 2020, a Customer Service Team has been set up in December 2021 and a Water Seepage Resource Centre was also established on 25 April 2022 in Sham Shui Po, to help promote understanding of water seepage matters and engage stakeholders in handling such cases.