ORDINANCE No. 13 of 1901.
Public Health,
43. If it appears to the Board that a group of contiguous buildings may be drained more advantageously in combination than separately, the Board may order that such group be drained upon some combined plan to be approved by the expert officer, and the cost thereof, together with the expenses of maintenance, shall be apportioned by the Board between the different owners of such group of contiguous buildings.
44. If any building be without a sufficient drain, and if a public sewer of sufficient size be within one hundred feet of the premises or outermost boundaries of the lot on which such building is situated, and if such public sewer be on a lower level, it shall be lawful for the Board to require the owner of such building to connect with such public sewer by means of a proper drain adequately trapped and ventilated, to the satisfaction of the Board: Provided always that, if any owner, by order of the Board, connects his building with a public sewer, he shall not be required to connect such building, at his own expense, with any other public sewer.
45. Whenever the Board shall have reason to believe that the drains of any building are defective and in a condition injurious to health, it shall be lawful for the Board to authorize an inspecting officer to enter the premises and to inspect such drains, and, if requisite for the purpose of such inspection, such officer shall cause the ground to be opened in any place or places he may deem fit, doing as little damage as may be, and should such drains be found in a satisfactory condition, they shall be reinstated and made good by the Board at the public expense, but should such drains prove in the opinion of the Board defective, it shall cause them to be properly reconstructed in accordance with the provisions of this Ordinance.
46. Every owner of a new building in the villages and rural districts of Hongkong and Kowloon shall construct the ground floor of such building at such sufficiently high level as will allow of the construction of a drain, and of the provision of the requisite communication with any public sewer into which such drain may lawfully empty or with any other means of drainage with which such drain may lawfully communicate.
47. Wherever feasible, every house-drain in the villages and rural districts of Hongkong and Kowloon shall hereafter be an open drain, consisting of a semi-circular channel, of glazed stoneware jointed in cement mortar and laid to adequate falls on a bed of good lime or cement concrete, to the satisfaction of the Board.
48. In isolated places not connected with any public drainage system, every such open drain shall lead and empty into a covered sump or cesspit built of brick or lime concrete rendered smooth in good Portland cement mortar in such manner as to be water-tight.
Wells and Pools.
49. No premises within the City of Victoria, or the villages of Hongkong and Kowloon, shall be so excavated as shall admit of the formation, on the surface thereof, of pools of stagnant or other foul waters, and it shall be lawful for the Board to call upon the owner of any premises whereon such pools may exist, to fill up the same with good clean earth to the level of the surrounding ground, or to drain off such pools by means of surface-drains into any channel with which such surface-drains may lawfully communicate.
50. Where it is made to appear to the Board that any well is in an insanitary condition, or is likely to prove injurious to health, and that it is expedient that it should be closed and filled up, the Board may call upon the owner, by notice in writing under the hand of the secretary, to close and fill up the same within the time limited in such notice. If such notice is not complied with, the Board may cause the owner to be summoned before a Magistrate, and the Magistrate may make such order in the matter and as to costs as he may deem right. Should the Magistrate order the well to be closed and filled up he may impose a penalty not exceeding five dollars for each day his order is not complied with.
Open Spaces, Backyards, etc.
51. Every person, who shall erect a new building on land obtained from the Crown subsequent to the thirtieth day of May, 1888, and on a site excavated out of a hill-side or declivity, shall not permit such new building to abut against the hill-side, but shall leave a clear intervening space or area of at least four feet between such new building, along its whole extent, and the toe of the slope of the hill-side: Always provided that—
(1.) Any kitchen, or out-house, appertaining to such new building, may abut against the hill-side, if not designed or intended for human habitation; and,
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