[Distinguished Public Officers] Carrie, Chief Environmental Protection Inspector of Environmental Protection Department

Winner of The Ombudsman’s Awards 2020 for Officers of Public Organisations

Wong Ka Lai, Carrie, Chief Environmental Protection Inspector (Regional South) of Environmental Protection Department

“Take action promptly with perseverance and determination.”

(The video is in Cantonese)

"On an afternoon in 2018, a large amount of milky water was discharged into the Shau Kei Wan Typhoon Shelter. Shortly afterwards, numerous complaints and enquiries reached me and my team. I immediately deployed staff to collect water samples and led other team members to trace the source of contamination. At the site, we saw that a whole stretch of the Typhoon Shelter had turned white, but the discharge had already stopped by that time, making it more difficult to trace the source. Losing no time in gathering evidence, we finally identified a construction site on the flat roof of a housing estate as the possible source."

"Despite the challenges in the investigation, my team and I worked with determination and didn’t give up. In the following week, we visited the site every day to gather evidence, and reconstructed the sequence of events despite the absence of witnesses. Eventually, we not only successfully prosecuted the main contractor and subcontractor concerned but also monitored their extraction of residual milky water from the stormwater drains to prevent further pollution of the Typhoon Shelter."

For more details of The Ombudsman’s Awards 2020, please visit the website of the Office of The Ombudsman.