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, public markets, cemeteries, crematoria and columbaria; and hawker management.
Street Sweeping
The Department and its cleansing contractors have a combined workforce of about 13,000 engaged in the provision of cleansing services, including street sweeping and washing, gully emptying, waste collection, and management of public toilets and refuse collection points. About 81% 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 sweepers are used to sweep high speed roads, flyovers and central dividers. The Department has put on trial in Tai Po and Yuen Long the use of mini mechanical sweepers to clean roads with low traffic. Special cleansing squads operate on a need basis to clean refuse dumping black spots. They deploy 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.
A total of about 12,000 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. They are emptied at a frequency of one to eight times daily, depending on the need of the areas. The Department also provides some 440 dog latrines and 1,900 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 160 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 need of the areas. The Department has introduced pressure washer surface cleaners for street cleansing to remove stubborn stains speedily. 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 2,930 refuse collection points (RCPs) in Hong Kong. These include 162 permanent off-street RCPs, 10 temporary RCPs, 869 village-type RCPs/ RCPs with temporary structures, and 1,889 bin sites. About 6,100 tonnes of household and street waste is collected daily and delivered to refuse transfer stations or landfills managed by the Environmental Protection Department. The Department has outsourced about 78% of its refuse collection services. A monitoring and sanction mechanism is in place to ensure that waste collection contractors deliver satisfactory services.
Public Toilets
Public toilets are provided mainly at tourist spots and busy areas. Altogether, 808 public flush toilets are managed by the Department - 91 on Hong Kong Island, 62 in Kowloon, and 655 in the New Territories and on outlying islands. In addition, there are 40 aqua privies in the New Territories and on outlying islands.
To ensure that public toilets are kept clean at all times, the Department employs attendants to station at those with high usage or located in tourist spots to provide immediate cleansing services, in addition to regular deep cleansing operations. We also actively explore the use of new technologies to improve the hygiene of public toilets.
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 2020, the Department handled about 39,200, 28,000 and 9,600 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 2,072 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 2020, about 46,730 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 illegal refuse deposit blackspots in individual districts, the Department has extended the scheme on installation of Internet Protocol (IP) cameras at illegal refuse deposit blackspots in the territory for two years starting from August 2019 to curb illegal deposits of refuse.
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 2020, there were 5,246 hawkers carrying out business in licensed fixed-pitch stalls and 348 licensed itinerant hawkers.
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 5,300 convictions for offences related to hawking in 2020.
With the release of vacant hawker pitches due to completion of the Assistance Scheme for Hawkers in Fixed-Pitch Hawker Areas and of those within or outside the hawker areas falling vacant due to other reasons, the Department identified 435 vacant hawker pitches suitable for re-allocation and issuance of licences, which were open for application by persons who were interested in hawking and able to meet relevant application requirements.
Out of the 14,126 applications received, 12,788 applicants were found eligible. Balloting was held to determine the priority of the applicants in pitch selection. By the end of 2020, 431 hawker pitches had been selected and 407 hawker licences issued. Pitch selection procedure will go on until all 435 vacant pitches are selected.
Shop Front Extension Problem
Illegal extension of business from shops is a street management issue. Several government departments are involved and have their respective roles to play. As part of the joint-departmental efforts to tackle the shop front extension problem, the Department has been taking stringent enforcement actions, instituting direct prosecutions against habitual offenders. Depending on situation, 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 2020, over 3,200 prosecutions and 10,734 fixed penalty notices were instituted against shop front extensions.
Lunar New Year Fairs
In 2020, the Department organised 15 Lunar New Year Fairs in 13 districts from 19 to 25 January, the Che Kung Festival Fair in Sha Tin from 22 January to 8 February, and the Lam Tsuen Fong Ma Po Fair in Tai Po from 25 January to 8 February. There were about 1,170 stalls offering commodities ranging from seasonal flowers and plants to fast food. The fairs provided venues for citizens to purchase new year flowers during the Lunar New Year period.
Public Markets and Cooked Food Venues
The FEHD is in charge of 75 wet markets, with about 12,970 stalls offering commodities ranging from fresh food to household items, and about 970 stalls in 39 cooked food centres and 23 free-standing cooked food markets. As of end 2020, 12,068 stalls were let out, 538 stalls were vacant, and 1,337 stalls frozen for designated purposes such as re-siting and renovation. Stalls are let through auction.
In 2020, the Department conducted promotional activities to enhance patronage of public markets, including various festive decorations and celebration activities during Lunar New Year, Tuen Ng and Mid-Autumn Festivals and Christmas/ New Year and thematic events, as well as display and publication of multi-lingual posters/booklet which provide updated market information. A series of promotional events were held to publicise the re-opening of Tai Wai Market after completion of installation of an air-conditioning system and the opening of FEHD Skylight Market in Tin Shui Wai.
The use of contactless payment in markets is desirable from the public hygiene perspective, as it can reduce virus transmission risks. A one-off subsidy was provided to tenants of public market stalls at a flat rate of $5,000 per stall to meet the initial set-up costs as well as service and other fees in relation to the provision of at least one contactless payment means. After the close of application on 21 December 2020, the Department received a total of 3,555 applications.
Health inspectorate officers and market staff undertake regular checks to ensure that stall operators observe the law, the codes of hygiene practices and tenancy conditions. In 2020, 1,292 prosecutions were instituted against market stall operators for breach of statutory provisions.
The Department is piloting a new management model at FEHD Skylight Market by strengthening the role of the service contractor in market management, with the aim of enhancing business vibrancy in the market and meeting the needs of the public. We will review the effectiveness of the new management model from time to time and consider how to implement new management measures to enhance the overall competitiveness of public markets.
Cemeteries, Crematoria and Columbaria
The Department manages six government crematoria, 10 public cemeteries and 10 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.
The Government's policy is to promote cremation over burial. During the year, about 91.7% (46,465) of deceased were cremated.
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 281,500 niches are provided for the storage of cremated ashes in 10 public columbaria.
Private Columbaria
Pursuant to the Private Columbaria Ordinance (Cap. 630) (the Ordinance), a person must obtain a specified instrument, namely a licence, an exemption or a temporary suspension of liability in order to operate, keep, manage or in any other way have control of a private columbarium.
The Private Columbaria Licensing Board (Licensing Board) is the statutory body responsible for regulating the operation and management of private columbaria. During the year, the Licensing Board issued two licences and one exemption to private columbaria, approved in principle one exemption application and nine applications for temporary suspension of liability, and refused 11 sets of applications for specified instruments. As at end of 2020, 238 applications for specified instruments submitted by 99 private columbaria were being processed by the Licensing Board.
The Private Columbaria Affairs Office provides executive support to the Licensing Board and handles matters relating to the implementation of the Ordinance. Apart from processing of applications for specified instruments, it also conducts inspections and takes enforcement actions to combat against the illegal operation of private columbaria. During the year, about 250 site inspections and investigation on about 50 cases of suspected contravention of the Ordinance were conducted, resulting in making arrest in four cases and prosecution against the operators of three columbaria.
Green Burial
The Department has been actively promoting sustainable means of burial by encouraging the public to scatter ashes of their ascendants in its 12 Gardens of Remembrance or in designated Hong Kong waters. In January 2010, the Department started providing free ferry service for families of the deceased to scatter ashes at sea. There were 854 cases of scattering ashes at sea and 6,247 cases of scattering ashes in the Gardens of Remembrance in 2020. In addition to the free ferry service for scattering cremated ashes at sea, the Department also arranges 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. By 2020, a total of 5,853 participants from 2,329 families had joined the trips.
The Department provides an Internet Memorial Service (IMS) 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) and a mobile app are also available. By the end of 2020, 18,928 users had registered and about 18,046 memorial webpages had been created. To further promote digital worshipping and for public convenience, the Department provides electronic memorial kiosks near the new Kwai Chung Garden of Remembrance1. Besides, the Department launched the Green Burial Central Register on 22 January 2019 to encourage the public to plan ahead and share their green burial wish with their family members. By the end of 2020, 5,734 members of the public registered their wish for green burial.
[1] The electronic memorial kiosks were relocated to Diamond Hill Columbarium on 11 November 2020 to make way for the construction works of cremation facility for abortuses at side of Kwai Chung Crematorium.