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 have a combined workforce of about 8,600 engaged in the provision of cleansing services, including street sweeping and washing, gully emptying, waste collection, and management of public toilets, aqua privies and refuse collection points.
Street sweeping is essential to 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. They deploy tipper lorries to remove 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 20,300 litter containers conveniently located at almost every bus stop, major road junction, ferry concourse and public transport interchange. They are emptied at a frequency of one to eight times daily, depending on the need of the areas. The Department also provides some 490 dog toilets and 1,040 dog excreta collection bins.
Street Washing
Regular street washing is carried out in public places including pavements, service lanes, hawker permitted areas, refuse collection points and black spots. 108 street washing teams from the Department's in-house staff and cleansing services contractors wash heavily patronised pedestrian precincts and hawker/hygiene black spots at least twice weekly; busy areas at least once a week; and other areas on a need basis. For trunk roads with heavy traffic where normal washing is not practicable, flushing is done during non-busy hours.
Gully Emptying
Roadside gullies are 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 2008, 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 67% of the Department's street cleansing services have been outsourced. A monitoring and sanction mechanism is in place to ensure that contractors deliver satisfactory services.
Refuse Collection
There are 3,117 refuse collection points (RCPs) in Hong Kong. These 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; 29 temporary RCPs; 747 village-type RCPs; and 2,182 bin sites. The RCPs are of different designs to suit 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. Some 5,160 tonnes of household waste are collected daily - 1,069 from Hong Kong Island, 1,593 from Kowloon and 2,498 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 69% of its refuse collection services. It has a monitoring 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 2,150 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 42,556 kilogrammes of waste paper, 608 kilogrammes of metal containers and 8,225 kilogrammes of plastic materials.
Wherever possible, retread tyres are used on the departmental vehicle fleet. In the past year, the ratio of brand-new to retread tyres was 1:0.48.
Public Toilets and Aqua Privies
Public toilets are provided mainly at tourist spots and busy areas including ferry concourses, bus termini and picnic areas. Altogether, 458 public toilets are managed by the Department - 95 on Hong Kong Island, 63 in Kowloon, and 300 in the New Territories and on outlying islands. In addition, there are 397 aqua privies in the New Territories and on outlying islands.
Under an on-going Public Toilet Refurbishment/Improvement Programme, nine projects were completed during the year. The Department is committed to further improving the hygiene, safety and comfort of public toilets. Many public toilets 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 provided in all public toilets. To ensure public toilets are kept clean at all times, the Department employs attendants to station at those with high usage to provide cleansing services.
Pursuant to the government policy of incorporating gender mainstreaming in project design and to meet the needs of both genders, the Department adopts a planning ratio of two female toilet compartments to every male toilet compartment.
The phased programme to convert all aqua privies into flushing toilets by 2012-13 continued in 2008. Of the 50 aqua privies for which conversion works commenced in November 2007 for completion by May 2009, 24 were converted into flushing toilets in the year. Works for another 80 aqua privies in the following phase also commenced in November 2008 for completion by mid-2010.
For cases with site constraints that restrict physical improvements, the Department has put in use microbial odour-arresting agents to alleviate odour problems.
Sanitary Nuisances
The Department deals with environmental nuisances, including those caused by water seepage, dripping air-conditioners and accumulation of refuse by issuing advisory letters and statutory Nuisance Notices to ensure abatement. In 2008, the Department handled some 22,000, 13,000 and 5,000 complaint cases about nuisances so caused respectively.
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 2008, about 32,000 fixed penalty notices were issued by FEHD staff.
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. Incentives are offered to encourage hawkers either to give up their licences or to move into the above venues. As a result, the number of licensed hawkers, including both fixed pitch and itinerant ones, fell to 7,135 by the end of 2008.
In recent years, there have been growing community expectations on the preservation of local heritage, including hawking activities and open-air bazaars. The Food and Health Bureau and the Department jointly review the hawker licensing policy, including exploring the feasibility of re-issuing hawker licences and relaxing the requirements for the succession 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. In this regard, we consulted the Legislative Council Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene, 18 District Councils, more than 20 hawker associations and relevant stakeholders on the preliminary proposals.
The management and control of hawkers is the responsibility of about 2,000 trained staff who are assigned to 191 hawker control teams. Where necessary, hawker handling centres are set up in police stations to facilitate charging of those arrested.
Environmental hygiene staff inspect fixed hawker 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 or illegal hawkers. There were 26,656 convictions for offences related to hawking in 2008.
Public Markets and Cooked Food Centres/Markets
Public markets and cooked food centres or markets serve an important role in meeting public demand for fresh and cooked food and dry goods. There are 80 public markets, with 13,772 stalls offering commodities ranging from fresh food to household items, and 1,046 stalls in 40 cooked food centres and 25 free-standing cooked food markets. In 2008, 11,392 stalls were leased out, with 2,406 vacant, and 1,020 frozen for designated purposes such as re-siting and renovation. Stalls are let through auction, with stallholders entering into a tenancy agreement with the FEHD. Aldrich Bay Market was commissioned in August, and the new Wan Chai Market in September to replace the old Wan Chai Market.
Since 2004, the Department has implemented a scheme to contract out management and cleansing services in public markets in selected districts by hiring service providers with dedicated personnel to manage the day-to-day operation of public markets. By the end of 2008, a total of 11 districts have outsourced the management of their markets.
In 2008, the Market Promotion Team carried out market promotion initiatives in selected public markets, including festive activities, cooking demonstrations and decorations on festive occasions, roving exhibitions on topical subjects and thematic talks or workshops. Opening and promotion programmes for the new Aldrich Bay Market and Wan Chai Market were organised. These included spending-induced programmes, workshops on healthy and seasonal diet as well as cooking demonstrations and competitions. An information booklet on public markets and cooked food markets and a quarterly Market Newsletter were published for wide distribution.
Market staff undertake daily checks to ensure that stallholders observe the law and their tenancy agreement conditions. Health inspectorate officers inspect meat, poultry, fish and cooked food stalls regularly to ensure compliance with relevant legislation and codes of hygiene practices and that food is clean and wholesome. Enforcement action is taken as and when necessary. There were 1,050 convictions in 2008.
Enhanced Measures against Avian Influenza
In June, some environmental samples collected from live poultry stalls in Po On Road Market, Luen Wo Hui Market, Yan Oi Market and Ap Lei Chau Market were tested positive of the H5N1 avian influenza virus. About 6,000 live poultry in retail outlets across Hong Kong were culled subsequently. Imports of live poultry from the Mainland and delivery of poultry from local farms to markets were suspended for 21 days.
To prevent the virus from accumulating in retail outlets, the Food Business (Amendment) Regulation was introduced on 2 July to prohibit overnight stocking of live poultry on retail premises.
To protect public health and further minimise the risk of human infection by avian influenza, the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council approved funding of over $600 million on 14 July to implement a buyout package to be offered to live poultry retailers. Live poultry retailers were allowed to surrender their permission to sell live poultry on a voluntary basis in exchange for an ex-gratia payment, and a one-off grant would also be given to assist affected workers. The buyout scheme closed on 24 September with 333 applications received.
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. 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 87% (36,410) of dead bodies were cremated. The Department has an on-going programme to upgrade cremation facilities to increase capacity and efficiency to meet the increasing demand for cremation services. Environmentally friendly features for these facilities are often 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 149,300 niches are provided at affordable prices for the storage of ashes in eight public columbaria, including about 3,300 new niches in the columbarium at Kwai Chung completed in 2008. To alleviate the shortage of public niches, the Government promotes the options of scattering cremated human ashes at sea and in Gardens of Remembrance.