LOHAS Park Drain Services

Sky Post reported on 9 October 2023 that during the rainstorms of Typhoon Koinu a LOHAS Park household's balcony was apparently flooded and the resident was bailing water out with plastic buckets. The report quoted Simon Tang, principal of a renovation academy, saying that balcony flooding generally has two causes: a drain pipe too narrow to carry the rainwater away in time, and a blocked drain. He added that in typhoons and heavy rain, leaves and other debris are blown onto balconies and wash into the drain, and that balcony drains fitted with a trap are relatively more prone to blockage. Most flats here have a view balcony, wind is strong at height, and leaves, silt and soil from planters easily reach the outlet. The suggested order is to clear debris at the outlet first and, where there is a trap cover, unscrew it and remove the obstruction; if the trap sits on the external wall, tools or a pump are needed.

On 8 September 2018, HK01 reported that a residents' association convenor at Le Prestige told the media he had found exposed reinforcement, spalled concrete, rusty pipes and leaks inside the light well, and held up two pieces of concrete he said had fallen from it. The same report quoted the MTR Corporation saying the developer had awarded two contracts in July that year, one of them for light-well rectification, and that a light-well survey was being arranged. Note that the report's wording mixes supply pipes and drains: a leaking fresh-water or flushing-water pipe is not the same as a drainage fault, and the two are followed up by different parties in different ways. Common drainage pipes inside a light well cannot be seen from your own flat at all; they usually have to be looked at from the flat opposite, or by the management office or a consultant working off scaffolding. The design has also been discussed at district level: at the Sai Kung District Council meeting of 3 May 2022 a member raised the point that new estates built in Tseung Kwan O over the previous decade commonly use an enclosed light well, and the Director of Buildings replied that the law currently permits the design, and that without it bathrooms might have no window at all. At the same meeting, answering another member on external-wall pipe seepage, the Director said residents who find a damaged common drainage pipe can report it to the Buildings Department, that where the location of the damage cannot be established the department can only inspect or test floor by floor, and that visual observation remains the most direct way to spot a leaking pipe.

On 16 July 2026 the Water Supplies Department told the Sai Kung District Council's Food and Environmental Hygiene Committee that the Tseung Kwan O seawater pumping station supplies flushing water to LOHAS Park and the Shek Kok Road area. On the burst main at Wan Po Road, it said it was laying a temporary main on Chiu Shun Road near the Wan Po Road roundabout, with the connection due to be completed within 2026, to cut the risk of having to suspend that pumping station for emergency repair and so reduce the impact on the flushing-water supply to LOHAS Park and the Shek Kok Road area, and that it was studying separating the supply systems. (Separately, the District Council record of 6 November 2018 notes the Civil Engineering and Development Department saying the main function of the LOHAS Park Road seawater pumping station is to draw seawater for flushing.) That is a supply matter, not a blockage, but it has two practical consequences. While flushing water is off, do not try to force tissue or wet wipes down with a small amount of fresh water, because that readily blocks the branch pipe. And as a general inference from experience, a WC and branch pipe flushed with seawater for years tend to collect salt and urine scale on the inner wall, so a high water level on the first flush after a long holiday or an empty spell does not necessarily mean the building's stack is blocked.

Phase 12 (SEASONS) is still being handed over in batches, the final phase, LA MIRABELLE, is due in 2027, Phase 11 (Villa Garda) has been occupied since 2025 and is still within its rectification period, and flats in the older phases are refitted all the time. The Buildings Department points out that traps on the toilet, basin and bathtub rarely dry out because those fixtures are used daily, but that a floor drain left unused and not topped up loses its water seal to evaporation and stops holding back sewer air, which is why it advises pouring about half a litre of water into every floor drain at least once a week. An empty flat, one not yet moved into, or one where nobody runs water during a fit-out is exactly that situation, and the bathroom smells as soon as the extractor fan is switched on. The other common case is cement, render or marble dust washed into a drain outlet during renovation: once set, neither a rodding machine nor jetting will always shift it, and in bad cases a section of pipe has to be opened up and replaced. At handover it is worth pouring water into every outlet to test the flow and listen for gurgling, and noting where the access points are. Buildings Department practice note APP-164 applies to drainage plans submitted after 31 August 2021 and requires used water to refill floor-drain traps in kitchens, toilets and pantries, with separate discharge for the lowest floors. Note that APP-164 keys on the date the drainage plans were submitted, not on completion: Wikipedia records that development rights for Phases 11 to 13 were awarded between 2019 and 2020, so their plans almost certainly pre-date 31 August 2021 and the requirement may not reach any phase here. Unless your building documents say a self-replenishing design was installed, assume every phase still relies on someone topping up the traps by hand each week.

In the rainstorms of May 2024 the open-air car park outside LOHAS Park was badly flooded. At the Sai Kung District Council meeting of 7 May 2024, a member said the catchpits and drains around that car park should be cleared regularly, and that refuse and debris were still accumulating around LOHAS Park Road. The Environmental Protection Department later explained to the District Council on 6 January 2026 that the main cause was the natural hillside outside the landfill being washed out by extremely heavy rain: the landslide blocked the drainage channel, so a large volume of rainwater surged towards the car park beside the landfill and flooded it. A concrete bund wall was later built around the landfill and water-level monitors were installed in the main drains. These are public storm drains outside the estate, not flat or estate pipework; but when the same rain falls on the estate, it is worth checking whether floor drains on the podium, in the landscaped areas and in the car park have been blocked by leaves and silt, and reporting those to the management office.