ENG-2004 — Page 292

242 | Land, Public Works and Utilities

prosecutions instituted against offenders for erecting UBWs or failing to comply with removal orders has increased by 2.4 times that of the past year. These resulted in 1 141 convictions with fines totaling $5.46 million.

To tackle the problem of existing UBWS, the Buildings Department continued to embark on 'blitz' clearance operations, to demolish in one exercise all external UBWs on a number of buildings in the same district. A total of 1 027 buildings were targeted for 'blitz' clearances in 2004. The programme to remove all illegal rooftop structures on 4 500 single staircase buildings, that would pose a serious fire hazard, continued to gather momentum. Enforcement action against 714 buildings with illegal rooftop structures was completed, compared with 402, 632 and 713 in 2001, 2002 and 2003, respectively.

After the territory-wide inspections of the external drainage systems for some 30 000 private buildings during the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, some 6 000 buildings have been identified with drainage defects in the inspections. In 2004, the Buildings Department continued to mobilise owners of these buildings. to rectify the defective drains identified. A total of some 5 200 buildings had defects rectified. Buildings Department also continued to take part in joint operations with other relevant departments to tackle hygiene blackspots under the Team Clean initiatives. A total of some 2 140 UBWS and 780 drainage defects in blackspots were removed or rectified in these operations during the year.

Under the Fire Safety (Commercial Premises) Ordinance, joint inspections by the Buildings Department and the Fire Services Department were made to improve fire safety in commercial premises built before 1987. For prescribed commercial premises (banks, betting centres, jewellery shops, shopping arcades, supermarkets), 200 Fire Safety Directions were issued to 120 premises requiring the owners concerned to remedy infractions. For specified commercial buildings (built before 1987), 3 082 Fire Safety Improvement Directions were issued to 140 buildings requiring upgrading of fire safety standards and facilities.

The recently enacted Fire Safety (Buildings) Ordinance requires the upgrading of essential fire safety provisions in composite and domestic buildings built before 1987. When the ordinance comes into operation, 9 000 composite buildings designed for both domestic and commercial uses will be required to be upgraded with additional fire service installations and fire safety construction. The upgrading programme will be extended to cover the remaining 3 000 domestic buildings where the fire risk involved is lower.

The Building Safety Loan Scheme continued to provide loans to owners who needed financial assistance to carry out works for improving the safety of their buildings. 2 439 loan applications with a total amount of $68.9 million were approved during the year.

Starting from November 2002, a total of 550 buildings were selected for action under the Coordinated Maintenance of Buildings Scheme. Owners of 369 buildings were motivated to take up their maintenance responsibilities. Repair or other improvement works were completed in 211 buildings.