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 10,800 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. About 77% 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.
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 sweeping, 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.
Litter containers are located at public places including bus stops, major road junctions, ferry concourses and public transport interchanges to facilitate pedestrians' depositing of litter. Following the successful implementation of the litter container reduction programme, the number of litter containers is further reduced from about 16,200 to some 14,600. In addition, newly designed litter containers with smaller openings are put in use to replace the worn-out ones. They are emptied at a frequency of one to eight times daily, depending on the need of the areas. The Department also provides some 450 dog latrines and 1,800 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 hygiene blackspots. A total of 139 street washing teams from the Department's in-house staff and cleansing service contractors provide day and night street washing services at a frequency ranging from on a need basis to daily depending on the needs of the areas. 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.
Refuse Collection
There are 2,950 refuse collection points (RCPs) in Hong Kong. These include 158 permanent off-street RCPs, 13 temporary RCPs, 853 village-type RCPs/RCPs with temporary structures, and 1,926 bin sites. The permanent off-street RCPs generally operate from 7 am to 3.30 pm, and up to 11.30 pm in busy areas, with some operating round the clock to meet the need of the community for such service. 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 RCPs to minimise any possible environmental nuisance to nearby residents. Waste in RCPs is collected at least once daily. About 5,750 tonnes of household and street waste are collected daily - 1,070 from Hong Kong Island, 1,750 from Kowloon and 2,920 from the New Territories and outlying islands. Waste is delivered to refuse transfer stations or landfills managed by the Environmental Protection Department. The Department has outsourced about 77% 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 recyclables collection service for 2,867 collection points in public places, schools, clinics and government venues to recover waste paper, metal and plastic materials. During the year, the average monthly weight of recyclable materials collected was 38,564 kilogrammes of waste paper, 4,131 kilogrammes of metal and 64,168 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 1:0.3.
Public Toilets and Aqua Privies
Public toilets are provided mainly at tourist spots and busy areas. Altogether, 789 public toilets are managed by the Department - 91 on Hong Kong Island, 62 in Kowloon, and 636 in the New Territories and on outlying islands. In addition, there are 57 aqua privies in the New Territories and on outlying islands.
Since 2000, the Department has implemented an on-going Public Toilet Refurbishment Programme to improve the design and facilities of public toilets. The Department is committed to making continuous effort in 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 coat hooks and racks inside individual toilet compartments for users to place their personal belongings. Air fresheners, hand sanitisers, liquid soap dispensers and toilet paper are provided in all public toilets. To ensure that public toilets are kept clean at all times, the Department employs attendants to station at those with high usage to provide immediate 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 general planning ratio of two female toilet compartments to every male toilet compartment. The Department also follows the prevailing statutory requirements in the provision of accessible unisex toilets stipulated in the "Design Manual - Barrier Free Access 2008". Priority compartments for the elderly as well as universal toilet will be provided in newly-built/refurbished public toilets where practicable.
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 2017, the Department handled about 36,000, 24,500 and 10,600 related complaint cases respectively.
Litter Offences and Public Cleanliness
Officers of the Health Inspector, 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 conducted. During the year, about 937 convictions were recorded.
The Fixed Penalty (Public Cleanliness and Obstruction) Ordinance empowers enforcement officers to issue $1,500 fixed penalty notices for minor cleanliness offences, including littering, spitting, unauthorised display of bills or posters, and dog fouling in public place. In 2017, about 44,840 fixed penalty notices were issued by FEHD staff against these littering offences.
To address the environmental hygiene problems caused by frequent deposits of refuse and waste at hygiene black spots in individual districts, the Department introduced a six-month pilot scheme on installation of Internet Protocol cameras at six black spots in Central and Western, Sham Shui Po and Yuen Long Districts from December 2016 to June 2017 for enhanced monitoring of illegal dumping of waste and planning of more effective enforcement action. The trial proved to be a success which resulted in improvement in the hygiene conditions at the blackspots. Given the support from District Council members, the scheme will be extended to all districts in 2018.
The Department also stepped up enforcement actions against the unauthorised display of easy-mount frames and other display fittings for business promotion on busy streets in various districts from October to November 2017 with a view to curbing the illegal activities and improving the district environment.
Hawker Management
It has been the standing policy of the Administration to satisfactorily regulate licensed hawking activities and take enforcement action against illegal hawkers. Apart from the sale of cooked food or restricted food without a licence, or conducting hawking activities in main thoroughfares, areas where there are high pedestrian flow or places where there are repeated complaints, enforcement staff generally adopt a "warning first, followed by prosecution" strategy. The Department will continue with the above strategy in monitoring on-street hawking activities.
As at the end of 2017, there were 5,341 hawkers carrying out business in licensed fixed-pitch stalls and 399 licensed itinerant hawkers. After consulting relevant stakeholders and the Legislative Council Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene on the proposals of a hawker licensing policy review conducted in 2008-09, the Department has been taking actions to implement the proposals.
The management and control of hawkers is the responsibility of about 2,300 trained staff who are assigned to about 190 squads of the hawker control team.
Hawker control staff inspect fixed hawker pitches regularly and regulate the operation of itinerant hawkers to ensure that licensing conditions and relevant legal provisions are observed. They also take enforcement action to prevent irregularities caused by licensed or illegal hawkers. There were 9,471 convictions for offences related to hawking in 2017.
Since the launch of the Hawker Assistance Scheme in June 2013 to provide financial assistance to 4,300 hawkers in 43 fixed-pitch hawker areas in order to reduce fire risks in the hawker areas, the Department has completed the relocation of all 508 fixed-pitch hawkers whose stalls were directly in front of staircase discharge points of buildings or obstructing emergency vehicular operations. These pitch spaces have now been vacated. Up to December 2017, out of a total of 4,329 hawker licences, the Department received 808 applications for surrender of hawker licences for ex-gratia-payments and 3,233 applications for reconstruction grants. So far, 2,783 new stall structures have been set up.
A webpage on street bazaars was also launched in the Department website in June 2017 to promote the culture of street bazaars in Hong Kong through articles, photographs and videos featuring the hawkers in different hawker areas.
Shop Front Extension Problem
Illegal extension of business from shops is a street management issue that falls within the purview of several government departments which have respective roles to play. As part of the joint-departmental efforts to tackle the shop front extension problem, the Department has been taking more stringent enforcement actions against illegal activities. Direct prosecutions have been instituted against habitual offenders in shop front extension blackspots without issuing prior warnings every time. Seizure actions have also been taken to achieve a stronger deterrent effect. A total of five shop front extension control task force teams were set up to strengthen enforcement actions at shop front extension blackspots across the territory.
In addition, the Government gazetted the Fixed Penalty (Public Cleanliness and Obstruction) Ordinance on 24 March 2016 to introduce a fixed penalty system as an additional enforcement tool to tackle the problem of shop front extensions more efficiently and effectively. The Ordinance took effect on 24 September 2016. With the fixed penalty level set at $1,500, the Department and the Hong Kong Police Force have been empowered to enforce the fixed penalty system. As at end 2017, over 4,200 prosecutions and 6,860 fixed penalty notices have been instituted against shop front extensions.
Lunar New Year Fairs
In 2017, the Department organised 15 Lunar New Year Fairs in 13 districts from 22 to 28 January, and the Che Kung Festival Fair in Sha Tin and the Lam Tsuen Fong Ma Po Fair in Tai Po from 25 January to 11 February. There were about 2,100 stalls offering commodities ranging from seasonal flowers and plants to traditional food, festive decorations, dry goods and fast food. The fairs not only provided additional leisure and shopping places for citizens and tourists, but also added zest to the festivity during the Lunar New Year period.
Public Markets and Cooked Food Venues
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 76 public markets, with about 13,370 stalls offering commodities ranging from fresh food to household items, and about 1,040 stalls in 39 cooked food centres and 25 free-standing cooked food markets. By end 2017, 12,852 stalls were let out, with 248 stalls vacant, and 1,309 stalls frozen for designated purposes such as re-siting and renovation. Stalls are let through auction, with successful bidders entering into a tenancy agreement with the Department.
During the year, various market promotion activities were carried out in public markets and cooked food centres/markets to enhance patronage. These included festive decorations and celebration activities during Lunar New Year, Tuen Ng and Mid-Autumn Festivals and Christmas/New Year, thematic activities, and display of "Recipes of Chef's Daily Recommendation" in Chinese, English, Filipino and Indonesian. An information booklet on public markets and cooked food markets and a multi-lingual booklet on common foods/goods items and service trades in public markets were published for wide distribution.
Market staff undertake daily checks to ensure that stall operators observe the law and tenancy 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. In 2017, 1,893 prosecutions were taken against market stall operators for breach of statutory provisions.
The Department continues to bolster the operating environment of public markets by improving management, upgrading facilities, providing more flexible mix of trade and carrying out promotional activities. In addition to regular maintenance, the Department carried out improvement works in the markets, such as upgrading electricity supply, lighting systems and fire services installations, etc. To ensure smooth operation of lifts and escalators in public markets, we have plans to replace by phases lifts and escalators which are over 20 years old. We have earmarked $90 million to replace 21 lifts and 15 escalators in 12 markets. Besides, the Department has formed a dedicated team to conduct a comprehensive review of all the markets with a view to improving market facilities and management in a systematic manner, including fundamental overhaul and in-situ redevelopment.
The Department has started planning for building new public market facilities in Tung Chung, Tin Shui Wai and Hung Shui Kiu, with consideration being given to adopting new approaches to the design, construction and operation of such projects.
Enhanced Measures against Avian Influenza
The frequency of inspection on overnight stocking of live poultry to the existing 130 retail outlets has been stepped up for better control of human infection of avian influenza (AI). During major Chinese festive periods, such as the Mid-Autumn Festival, Winter Solstice and Lunar New Year where over-stocking of live poultry is common, the inspection frequency will be increased further.
Preventive measures continue to be adopted, including (a) taking samples of faecal, drinking water, defeathering machine and chopping board at live poultry retail outlets to test for AI virus; (b) conducting regular inspections to live poultry retail outlets to ensure compliance with the special licensing or tenancy conditions on AI control; (c) cleansing common parts of FEHD markets thoroughly three times daily; (d) daily cleansing of live poultry market stalls after business hours, followed by another thorough cleansing and disinfection by FEHD contractors; (e) maintaining the cleanliness of market stalls' ventilating systems; and (f) conducting regular inspections, washing and disinfection of public places where wild birds gather and taking stringent enforcement action against feeding of wild birds in public places.
Cemeteries, Crematoria and Columbaria
The Department manages six government crematoria, 10 public cemeteries and eight public columbaria for the provision of cremation and burial services to the public. It also monitors the management of 27 private cemeteries in accordance with the provisions of the Private Cemeteries Regulation. Six years after their burial in public cemeteries, human remains have to be exhumed for either cremation or reburial in an urn cemetery.
The Government's policy is to promote cremation over burial. During the year, about 93% (42,809) of deceased were cremated. Upon completion of the reprovisioning of Wo Hop Shek Crematorium and Cape Collinson Crematorium in February 2013 and December 2015 respectively, the cremation capacity and efficiency of the crematoria provided by the Department have been increased to meet the increasing demand for cremation service. Environmentally friendly features were also introduced for cremation facilities.
For public convenience, the booking of cremation sessions at all of the six public crematoria, namely Cape Collinson, Diamond Hill, Fu Shan, Wo Hop Shek, Kwai Chung and Cheung Chau, can either be made in person or through licensed undertakers of burials at Wu Chung House in Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island and Cheung Sha Wan Government Offices in Kowloon, or be made online. At present, some 214,300 niches are provided for the storage of cremated ashes in eight public columbaria.
Private Columbaria
The Private Columbaria Ordinance (Cap. 630) (the Ordinance), which introduces a licensing scheme to regulate the operation of private columbaria, came into effect on 30 June 2017. Under the Ordinance, the operation of a private columbarium in Hong Kong must be covered by a specified instrument, viz a licence, an exemption or a temporary suspension of liability, and only private columbaria that have obtained a licence may sell or newly let out niches. It is an offence for a person to operate, keep, manage or in any other way have control of a columbarium without holding a valid specified instrument. Offenders are liable on conviction upon indictment to a fine of $5 million and imprisonment for seven years.
The Private Columbaria Licensing Board (the Licensing Board) was established on 8 September 2017 to regulate the operation and management of private columbaria and, in particular, to handle applications for specified instruments. Moreover, the Private Columbaria Affairs Office was set up to provide executive support to the Licensing Board and handle matters relating to the implementation of the Ordinance.
The Licensing Board has started to receive applications for specified instruments on 30 December 2017.
Green Burial
The Department has been actively promoting sustainable means of burial by encouraging the public to scatter ashes of their ascendants in its 11 Gardens of Remembrance or in designated Hong Kong waters. In January 2010, the Department launched a pilot scheme of providing free ferry service for families of the deceased to scatter ashes at sea. In view of the increasing number of families choosing this form of interment, the Department enhanced its free ferry service from mid-January 2012 by employing a bigger vessel which can accommodate more than 300 passengers, providing a more spacious venue for family members and friends to hold memorial ceremonies for the deceased. The Department has further increased the number of sailings to once every Saturday (except public holidays) starting from August 2015. There were 966 cases of scattering ashes at sea and 4,966 cases of scattering ashes in the Gardens of Remembrance in 2017. In addition to the free ferry service for scattering cremated ashes at sea, since 2014 Ching Ming Festival, the Department has also arranged a total of 16 memorial sailings during the Ching Ming Festival and Chung Yeung Festival for the public to pay tribute to their loved ones whose ashes were scattered at sea. A total of 1,292 families with 3,388 participants have joined the trips as at 2017.
The Department also launched the Internet Memorial Service (IMS) in June 2010 for members of the public to pay tribute and express condolences to their lost loved ones at any time and from anywhere online through a dedicated webpage (www.memorial.gov.hk). A mobile version (m.memorial.gov.hk) was also introduced in 2011 to further enhance the service. By the end of 2017, around 8,700 users were registered and about 10,900 memorial webpages were created.