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
The Department and its cleansing contractors command a total workforce of about 8,100 for the provision of cleansing services, including street sweeping and washing, gully emptying, waste collection, and the management of public toilets, aqua privies and refuse collection points.
Street sweeping is an essential service in keeping the city clean. All streets are swept manually from one to four times a day, depending on the need of the areas. Streets in highly pedestrianised areas or popular tourist spots may be swept up to eight times a day.
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 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 about 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 one to eight times daily, depending on the need of the areas. The emptying frequency of litter containers is displayed on the bins. The departmental hotline 2868 0000 is printed on all litter containers for public enquiries and complaints. The Department also provides some 490 dog toilets and 1,000 dog excreta collection bins for use by dog keepers.
Street Washing
Regular street washing services are required for public places including pavements, service lanes, hawker permitted 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 non-busy hours.
Gully Emptying
Roadside gullies are generally cleared manually once every two to four 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 outbreak in early 2003, street cleansing has been enhanced to improve environmental hygiene. In 2007, the Department continued to provide enhanced cleansing and cleansing-related services in the following areas:
- cleansing of refuse collection points, aqua privies and villages in the New Territories and on outlying islands;
- rodent and mosquito control operations; and
- cleansing of public markets, cooked food centres and hawker sites.
About 64% of the Department's street cleansing services have been outsourced. A monitor and sanction mechanism is in place to ensure contractors deliver satisfactory services.
Refuse Collection
There are 3,113 Refuse Collection Points (RCPs) in Hong Kong. They include 160 permanent off-street RCPs, which generally operate from 7 am to 3.30 pm, and up to 11.30 pm in busy areas; 167 temporary RCPs; 746 village-type RCPs; and 2 040 bin sites. The RCPs are of different designs according to actual needs and site constraints. They are used for temporary storage of street litter and household waste pending collection. Whenever circumstances permit, the Department makes 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 in-house staff and waste collection contractors. Some 5,336 tonnes of household waste are collected daily - 1,146 from Hong Kong Island, 1,623 from Kowloon and 2,567 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. It has put in place a monitor and sanction mechanism to ensure that waste collection contractors deliver satisfactory services.
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 42,015 kilogrammes of waste paper, 822 kilogrammes of metal containers and 9,098 kilogrammes of plastic materials.
Wherever possible, retread tyres are used on the departmental vehicle fleet. In the past year, the ratio on brand-new tyres to retread tyres reached the target ratio of 1:0.5.
Public Toilets and Aqua Privies
Public toilets are provided mainly at ferry concourses, bus termini, picnic areas, tourist spots and other busy areas. Altogether, 429 public toilets are managed by the Department - 95 on Hong Kong Island, 63 in Kowloon, and 271 in the New Territories and on outlying islands. In addition, there are 424 aqua privies in the New Territories and on outlying islands.
Under an on-going Public Toilet Refurbishment/Improvement Programme, five projects were completed during the year. The Department remains committed to further improving the hygiene, safety and comfort of public toilets. Many public toilets managed by the Department 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 for the comfort and convenience of users. To ensure public toilets are kept clean at all times, the Department employs attendants to station at those with high usage rates to provide cleansing services.
In pursuing the government policy of incorporating gender mainstreaming in project design and to ensure the needs of both genders are considered, the Department adopts the planning ratio of two female toilet compartments for every male toilet compartment.
Under the 3-year programme initiated by the former Team Clean to convert, where practicable, about 100 aqua privies into flushing toilets at popular sight-seeing spots or those with higher usage rates, 97 aqua privies have been converted into flushing toilets since 2005, including 59 in 2007. The remaining three aqua privies have been or will be demolished to give way to road widening projects or land status rectification. To convert all aqua privies into flushing toilets by 2012-13, works for another 50 aqua privies commenced in November 2007 for completion by May 2009.
For cases with site constraints that restrict physical improvements, the Department has rolled out a trial scheme to examine the feasibility of using odour-arresting agents to improve the odour problem.
Sanitary Nuisances
The Department deals with environmental nuisances, including those caused by dripping air-conditioners, accumulation of refuse and water seepage in private buildings by issuing advisory letters and statutory Nuisance Notices to ensure abatement.
Litter Offences
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 600 convictions were recorded.
The Fixed Penalty (Public Cleanliness Offences) Ordinance 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 2007, over 27,000 fixed penalty notices were issued.
Hawker Management
It has been the Department's policy to reduce street hawking. No new hawker licences have been issued under normal circumstances since 1970s. Eligible licensed hawkers have been relocated into public markets and cooked food centres. In addition, incentives are 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 7,236 by the end of 2007. However, in recent years, there has been a growing community expectation on the preservation of local heritage, including hawking activities and open-air bazaar. The Food and Health Bureau and the Department are now jointly reviewing the policy on hawker licensing, including exploring the feasibility of re-issuing new hawker licences and relaxing the requirements for the succession to and transfer of hawker licences without compromising environmental hygiene. It has also been proposed that the role of District Councils should be enhanced in terms of hawker licensing and hawker bazaar management at the district level. Hawker associations and District Councils will be consulted on the preliminary proposals of the review.
During the year, 71 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 as part of an ongoing buy-back scheme. At the same time, six cooked food stall licensees voluntarily surrendered their licences for a $60,000 ex-gratia payment.
The management and control of hawkers is the responsibility of about 2,000 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 of 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 27,262 convictions for offences related to hawking in 2007.
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 79 public markets, with 13,867 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 2007, 11 383 stalls were leased out, while 3,526 were vacant (including 1,181 stalls frozen for designated purposes such as re-siting and renovation). All stalls are let through auction, with stallholders entering into a tenancy agreement with FEHD. The Stanley Waterfront Mart was opened in January. Two new markets are under construction.
Since 2004, the Department has implemented a pilot scheme to contract out management and cleansing services in public markets in selected districts by hiring professional services providers with dedicated personnel to manage the day-to-day operation of the markets. By the end of 2007, a total of five districts have outsourced the management of their markets.
In 2007, the Market Promotion Team carried out a number of market promotion initiatives in selected public markets, including festive activities, cooking demonstration and decorations on festive occasions; roving exhibitions on topical subjects; display of information panels showing healthy recipes in different languages; thematic workshops and competitions; and spending-induced programmes in newly renovated public markets. An information booklet on public markets/cooked food markets and a quarterly Market Newsletter were published for wide distribution.
During the year, the team has also carried out beautification works and provided customer-oriented facilities in selected markets, such as installation of LED (light emitting diode) display panels and display of giant banners/external wall stickers.
Market staff undertake daily checks to ensure stallholders observe the law and the conditions of their tenancy agreements. 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 1,456 convictions in 2007.
Cemeteries, Crematoria and Columbaria
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. 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% (34,427) of 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 cremation facilities with increased capacity and efficiency are 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 146,000 niches are provided at affordable prices for the storage of ashes in eight columbaria, including the provision of about 1,000 new niches in the columbarium at Cheung Chau in 2007. To alleviate the shortage of public niches, the Government promotes the options of scattering cremated human ashes in Gardens of Remembrance and at sea.