Years ago, when new building construction was part of the supervisory duty of the Health Inspector (sanitary inspector), I had attended the course for the then sanitary inspectors.

I remember in the then Sanitary Law and Administration, there were clauses on building, one of which stipulated that “Every house should have a water tank exclusively belonging thereto”. It then gave the necessary requirements, such as the cubic area of the water tank in relation to the square area of the roof with which the well was connected.

Occupiers were keen to keep the roof as clean as possible because the water from the water tank was the source for all house purposes, including drinking.

In the year 1947, supervision of building construction was transferred to the Public Works Department and a number of building inspectors, some eight inspectors and some from other sources, were appointed and were responsible to see that buildings were being constructed according to law. However, this was a time when a great demand for construction was consequential to the ravages of war and the supervisory personnel was not in a position to meet the great demand for supervision.

The result was obvious, building laws were disregarded.