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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

MR. B. A. BERNACCHI (in English):---Mr. Chairman, I will confine myself to alignment Nos. 5 and 9. Surely, the Council should be consulted before they adopt because after they have adopted presumably, it is no good what the Council says.

MR. JOSEPH Y. S. CHAN (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, as far as I know, whether it be Government or District Board, they have only got two options even though the total proposals are ten. Since the choice is between 5 or 9 and both of these two will affect our Aberdeen Promenade. So could I ask whether the Recreation Select Committee will take up the issue and monitor the situation?

MR. PETER C. K. CHAN (in Cantonese):—The Recreation Select Committee will hold its meeting to-morrow, so perhaps the department can verbally report to us whether the paper is on its way or not. We will have a meeting to-morrow morning.

6. MISS CHRISTINA Y. C. TING asked the following question (in Cantonese):--- Recently, quite a number of complaints were focusing on effluent oozing caused by the dripping of dirty water from choked sewage pipes at back lanes of residential/industrial buildings thus causing an environmental nuisance to the

public.

Could this Council be informed that:

(a) What kind of actions will the Department take to deal with this nuisance as

most of the back lanes being polluted are private lands? (b) In the absence of proper control and management of sewage pipes, dirty water will continue dripping out from those poor conditioned pipes. Will the Council take the initiative to urge/advise the Government to set up an interdepartmental working group to tackle and monitor those problematic sewage pipes if there is no responsible department to deal with this problem?

DR. RONALD D. B. LEUNG, CHAIRMAN OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in English):-The question concerns en- vironmental nuisance caused by choked drains in the back lanes of residential and industrial buildings.

Part A of the question asks the actions that the Department will take to deal with these offenders. Nuisance of this nature as defined in section 12 of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap. 132) is a matter which may be dealt with summarily under section 127 of the Ordinance. In practice, if the nuisance is minor and the responsible person can readily be traced, staff of our Department will advise him to take immediate abatement action. If this is impracticable, the Department may resort to the issue of a nuisance notice requiring him to abate the nuisance within a prescribed period of time, usually varying from two to fourteen days. Failure to comply with the requirements of

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the nuisance notice may result in prosecution against him and a request made to the Court for the issue of a nuisance order to secure the abatement of the nuisance.

Apart from the provisions in the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance, the Department may request the Buildings and Lands Department or the newly-formed Drainage Services Department to take immediate steps to abate such nuisance. In the interest of public health, it is essential that serious nuisances caused by choked or defective drains should be abated as soon as possible. Therefore, where nuisance occurs within private properties, and where it is impossible to trace the owner or agent responsible or the cooperation of joint-owners cannot be obtained to share the expenses incurred in the abatement of the nuisance, the Chief Building Surveyor of the Buildings and Lands Department will be asked to assist. Nuisance arising from public drains will be referred to the Urban Drainage Division of the Drainage Services Department in accordance with inter-departmental arrangements.

Part B of the question asks whether there is a responsible department to deal with this problem or not. As I have mentioned earlier last year, a new department has been formed, called the Drainage Services Department and this a department to deal with this question and there is an inter-departmental working group to tackle such problems. Also, the Urban Services Department has long established a surveillance system whereby cleansing staff of the Department will carry out daily patrols to back lanes and public places and will take appropriate measures when such nuisance is discovered. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

MISS CHRISTINA Y. C. TING (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, Dr. LEUNG has just given the reply and I would like to ask a follow-up question. He said that it would take two to fourteen days before the nuisance could be abated. I am most concerned about the wastes which drip out from the pipe give out a lot of odour and create a great nuisance to the environment. I would like to know whether the department is going to do the cleaning job because the general public may feel that the USD which is responsible for collection of refuse should also be responsible for cleaning up the waste water. It is the misconception of the general public at least. The period for abatement of nuisance which ranges from two to fourteen days seems to be a rather long period for the general public to wait.

DR. RONALD D. B. LEUNG (in English):—Two to fourteen days may be quite a marked range but it depends on the seriousness of the nature of the defects. As regards the pollution of the environment caused by the defective drainage of dirty water, the cleaning-up would be the department's job, but the repair itself will be the house owners' job, so it is quite divided. Surely the department will take immediate action to clean up the place arising from the leaking of the defective drainage but the repair of defective drainage rests with the house owners or flat owners.

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