Maintaining a clean and hygienic living environment for the public is another key responsibility of the Department. The range of services includes street cleansing; waste collection; management of public toilets and aqua privies, public markets, cemeteries, crematoria and columbaria; and hawker management.
Street Sweeping
A departmental workforce of about 3,500 provides services including street sweeping and street washing, gully emptying, waste collection and managing public toilets, aqua privies and refuse collection points.
Street sweeping is an essential service in keeping the city clean. The frequency of sweeping depends on the needs of the area and ranges from once to eight times a day. In the main commercial areas and tourist spots, streets are usually swept from four to eight times daily.
In addition to manual labour, mechanical suction sweepers are used to sweep highways, flyovers, central dividers and other busy traffic spots. Special cleansing squads operate on a need basis to clean hygiene black spots. The squads are provided with tipper lorries, while vans are used for the removal of large abandoned articles and bulky waste that cannot be handled by street sweepers. The squads also undertake urgent clearance operations in the event of traffic accidents or natural disasters.
There are some 20,000 litter containers conveniently located at almost every bus stop, major road junction, ferry concourse and public transport interchange in Hong Kong. They are emptied at a frequency ranging from once to eight times daily depending on the needs of the area. The emptying frequency of litter containers is displayed on the bins to encourage the public to monitor the performance of cleansing staff provided by the Department and cleansing services contractors. The departmental hotline 2868 0000 is printed on all litter containers for public enquiries and complaints. The Department also provides some 480 dog toilets and 950 dog excreta collection bins for the convenience of dog owners.
Street Washing
Regular street washing services are required for pavements, service lanes, hawker-concentrated areas, refuse collection points and black spots. About 90 street washing teams are provided by the Department's in-house staff and cleansing services contractors to provide services to heavily patronised pedestrian precincts and hawker/hygiene black spots at least twice weekly; to busy areas at least once a week; and to other areas on a need basis. For trunk roads with heavy traffic, where normal street washing is not practicable, street flushing is done during the non-busy hours.
Gully Emptying
Roadside gullies are normally cleared manually once every two weeks. Gully traps on highways and flyovers are cleared once every six weeks by mechanical gully emptiers after midnight when traffic is light.
Enhanced Services
Since the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in early 2003, street cleansing has been enhanced to improve environmental hygiene. In 2006, the Department continued to provide enhanced cleansing and cleansing-related services in the following areas:
- removal of illegal bills and posters;
- cleansing of refuse collection points, aqua privies and villages in the New Territories including Islands District.
- rodent and mosquito control operations; and
- cleansing of public markets, cooked food centres and hawker sites.
So far, about 63% of the Department's street cleansing services have been outsourced. A monitoring and sanction mechanism is in place to ensure contractors deliver satisfactory service.
Refuse Collection
There are 3 120 Refuse Collection Points (RCPs) in Hong Kong. They include 159 permanent off-street RCPs, which generally operate from 7 am to 3.30 pm, and up to 11.30 pm in busy areas; 165 temporary RCPs; 747 village-type RCPs; and 2,049 bin sites. The RCPs are of different designs according to the actual need and site availability. They are used for temporary storage of street litter and household waste pending collection. Whenever circumstances permit, the Department continues to make improvements to minimise any possible environmental nuisance to nearby residents.
Household waste is collected at least once daily from RCPs by refuse collection teams provided by both the in-house staff and waste collection contractors. Some 5,520 tonnes of household waste are collected daily - 1,176 from Hong Kong Island, 1,649 from Kowloon and 2,695 from the New Territories and outlying islands. Waste is delivered to refuse transfer stations or landfills managed by the Environmental Protection Department.
The FEHD has outsourced about 61% of its refuse collection services and, in keeping with other outsourcing contracts, it has put in place a monitoring and sanction mechanism to ensure that waste collection contractors deliver a satisfactory service.
Waste Reduction
In support of the Government's initiative to reduce waste, the Department provides recyclable collection service to 1,969 collection points in public places, schools, clinics, and government venues to recover waste paper, metal containers and plastic materials.
During the year, the average monthly weight of recyclable materials collected was 43,140 kilogrammes of waste paper, 2,056 kilogrammes of metal containers and 7,852 kilogrammes of plastic materials.
Wherever possible, retread tyres are used on the departmental vehicle fleet and plans are in hand to increase the ratio on brand-new tyres to retread tyres to 1:0.5 in the future.
Public Toilets and Aqua Privies
Public toilets are primarily provided at ferry concourses, bus termini, picnic areas, tourist spots and other busy areas. Altogether, 368 public toilets are managed by the Department - 94 on Hong Kong Island, 62 in Kowloon, and 212 in the New Territories and on outlying islands. In addition, there are
485 aqua privies in the New Territories and on outlying islands.
A refurbishment programme to upgrade old public toilets has begun, and during the year 10 public toilet/aqua privy improvement projects were completed. The Department remains committed to further improving hygiene, safety and comfort. Many public toilets managed by the FEHD have been installed with new features, such as automatic infrared sensor water taps, hand dryers, urinal bowls and hand basins at children's height, baby changing counters, and separate racks inside toilet compartments for users to place their personal belongings. Air fresheners and free toilet paper are also provided in all public toilets to create a comfortable and convenient environment for users. To ensure public toilets are kept clean at all times, the Department has stationed attendants at toilets with high usage rates to provide cleansing services.
In pursuing government policy of incorporating gender mainstreaming in project design and to ensure the needs and perspectives of both genders are considered, the Department has adopted the planning ratio of two female toilet compartments for every male toilet compartment.
A 3-year programme to convert, where practicable, about 100 aqua privies into flushing toilets meeting present day standards at popular sight-seeing spots or those with higher usage rates, is due to be completed by the end of 2007. A total of 30 aqua privies were converted into flushing toilets in 2006.
For those where site constraints restrict physical improvements, a trial scheme has started to test the suitability of bio-chemical agents to remove odours.
Sanitary Nuisances
The Department deals with environmental nuisances, including dripping air-conditioners, accumulation of refuse and water seepage in private buildings by issuing advisory letters and statutory notices.
Litter Offences
All officers of the health inspectorate, foreman and hawker control grades of the Department are empowered to issue summonses against people committing cleanliness offences. Apart from day-to-day enforcement action, anti-littering raids are also conducted. During the year, about 740 convictions were recorded with fines totalling more than $0.9 million.
The Fixed Penalty (Public Cleanliness Offences) Ordinance (Cap. 570) empowers enforcement officers to issue $1,500 fixed penalty notices for minor cleanliness offences, including littering, spitting, unauthorised display of bills and posters, and dog fouling in public place. In 2006, over 26,000 fixed penalty notices were issued.
Hawker Management
As part of the Department's policy of reducing street hawking, no new licences are issued and eligible licensed hawkers are being relocated into public markets and cooked food centres. In addition, incentives are being offered to encourage hawkers either to give up their licences or to move into the venues. As a result, the number of licensed hawkers - both fixed-pitch and itinerant - fell to 7,484 by the end of 2006.
During the year, 48 itinerant hawkers voluntarily surrendered their licences in return for either a
$30,000 ex-gratia payment or to operate a vacant fixed pitch or a market stall at a concessionary rent. At the same time, five cooked food stall licensees voluntarily surrendered their licences for $60,000 ex-gratia payments as part of an ongoing buy-back scheme.
The management and control of hawkers is the responsibility of about 2,100 trained staff members who are assigned to 191 hawker control teams. Support facilities include control centres and seized goods stores. Where necessary, hawker-handling centres are set up in police stations to facilitate charging formalities for those arrested.
Environmental hygiene staff inspect fixed pitches regularly and regulate the operation of itinerant hawkers to ensure that licensing conditions and relevant legislative provisions are observed. They also take enforcement action to prevent irregularities caused by licensed hawkers or illegal hawking. Such action resulted in 26 695 convictions for offences related to hawking in 2006.
Public Markets and Cooked Food Centres/Markets
Public markets and cooked food centres/markets serve an important role in meeting public demand for fresh and cooked food and dry goods. There are 78 public markets, with 13,909 stalls offering commodities ranging from fresh food to household items, and 1,042 stalls in 39 cooked food centres and 25 free-standing cooked food markets. In 2006, 11,448 stalls have been leased out, while 3,503 were vacant (including 1,423 stalls frozen for designated purposes such as re-siting and renovation). All stalls are let through auction, with stallholders entering into a tenancy agreement. The construction work of the Stanley Waterfront Mart was completed in October 2006 and will be opened in January 2007. The Soy Street Temporary Cooked Food Market was decommissioned in December 2006. Two new markets are under construction.
The Department has implemented a pilot scheme of contracting-out of management and cleansing services in public markets in selected districts by hiring professional services suppliers with dedicated personnel to manage the day-to-day operation of the markets. The trial scheme was first launched in one district in 2004. Having reviewed its operation in 2005, the Department extended the scheme to two other districts in 2006.
In 2006, the Market Promotion Team carried out a number of market promotion initiatives including mini-performances and decorations on festive occasions; roving exhibitions on topical subjects; workshops and competitions organised for market tenants and the public; and spending-induced programmes in new and renovated public markets. The Department also published an information booklet on public markets/cooked food markets and a quarterly Market Newsletter for wide distribution.
Other initiatives during the year included the enhancement of customer-oriented facilities in selected markets, such as the provision of LED (light emitting diode) display panels, additional signage, improved lighting and installation of seats.
Market staff undertake daily checks to ensure stallholders observe the provisions of their tenancy agreements and the law. Health inspectorate officers conduct regular inspections of meat, poultry, fish and cooked food stalls to ensure that the food is clean and wholesome and comply with the relevant legislation and codes of hygiene practices. Enforcement action is taken as and when necessary. There were 1,635 convictions in 2006.
Voluntary Surrender Scheme for Live Poultry Retailers
To minimise contact between humans and live poultry as a way of further reducing the risk of human infection by avian influenza, an incentive scheme was launched on 13 July 2004 to encourage live poultry retailers to voluntarily surrender their licences or tenancies.
Under the scheme -
- an ex-gratia payment is made to live poultry retailers who choose to surrender their fresh provision shop (FPS) licences or endorsement to sell live poultry on licences; or to terminate their live poultry market stall tenancies;
- a one-off grant is provided to live poultry retail workers who lost their jobs as a result of their employers ceasing operations under the incentive scheme; and
- loan facilities are offered to FPS licensees selling live poultry, and who choose to continue with their trading operations, to upgrade their facilities to improve sanitary and hygiene conditions.
Application closed on 4 August 2006. Up to the end of 2006, $89.71 million had been spent on ex-gratia payments.
Cemeteries, Crematoria and Columbaria
The FEHD provides cremation and burial services through six crematoria and 11 public cemeteries. It also monitors 28 private cemeteries in accordance with the provisions of the Private Cemeteries Regulation (Cap. 132 sub. leg. BF). After six years, human remains buried in public cemeteries have to be exhumed to be either cremated or reburied in an urn cemetery.
The Government's policy is to promote cremation over burial. During the year about 86% (32,215) of all dead bodies were cremated. In view of the ageing population and increasing demand for cremation services, plans are in hand to upgrade cremation facilities. Whenever practicable, environmentally friendly facilities with increased capacity and efficiency for cremation will be introduced.
For public convenience, the booking of cremation sessions at six public crematoria - Cape Collinson, Diamond Hill, Fu Shan, Wo Hop Shek, Kwai Chung and Cheung Chau - can be made in person at Wu Chung House, Wan Chai and Cheung Sha Wan Government Offices in Kowloon.
Some 145,000 niches are provided at affordable prices for the storage of ashes in eight columbaria, including the provision of about 7,000 new niches in existing columbaria at Cape Collinson, Kwai Chung and Wo Hop Shek in 2006.