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 13,200 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. 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 11,400 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 430 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 151 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 3,021 refuse collection points (RCPs) in Hong Kong. These include 164 permanent off-street RCPs, 8 temporary RCPs, 888 village-type RCPs/ RCPs with temporary structures, and 1,961 bin sites. About 6,120 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 79% of its refuse collection services. A monitoring and sanction mechanism is in place to ensure that waste collection contractors deliver satisfactory services.
To improve the efficacy of refuse collection service and environmental hygiene in rural areas, the Department has been actively deploying solar-powered waste collection facilities, including aluminium RCPs with automated functions, mobile refuse compactors and compacting refuse bins at existing service locations progressively.
Public Toilets
Public toilets are provided mainly at tourist spots and busy areas. Altogether, 805 public flush toilets are managed by the Department - 91 on Hong Kong Island, 59 in Kowloon, and 655 in the New Territories and on outlying islands. In addition, there are 34 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. The "Smart Toilet System" prototype developed by the Department in collaboration with the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) has been applied in two FEHD Public Toilets on a trial basis since May 2021. The ongoing evaluation on the efficiency of the system, which will last until 31 July 2023, is in progress. The EMSD has also funded a 1-year "Smart Toilet Pilot Programme" on 1 August 2022 covering 10 FEHD Public Toilets.
Sanitary Nuisances
The Department deals with environmental nuisances, including those caused dripping air-conditioners and accumulation of refuse, and set up the Joint Office with the Buildings Department to handle water seepage cases. Advisory letters and statutory Nuisance Notices are issued to ensure abatement. In 2022, the Department handled about 25,800, 7,300 and 39,500 related complaint cases respectively.
To further promote the public's understanding of water seepage and related matters, the Department has set up the Water Seepage Resource Centre (the Centre) at Sham Shui Po on 25 April 2022. Videos, photographs and leaflets are available in the Center for the reference of the public.
The nuisance caused by dripping air-conditioners happens mainly in the summer months. To cope with the substantial increase in workload during that period, the Department has recruited dedicated teams of contract staff since 2017 to step up inspection, advising and education, as well as to take law enforcement actions, focusing on buildings where the problem of dripping air-conditioners is serious. In 2022, this Department has set up nine such dedicated teams in order to tackle the problem of dripping air-conditioners more effectively.
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 2,410 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 2022, about 46,500 fixed penalty notices were issued by FEHD staff against these cleanliness 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 installed Internet Protocol (IP) cameras at illegal refuse deposit blackspots in the territory to curb illegal deposits of refuse. The Department had established 52 Dedicated Enforcement Teams (DETs) by the end of 2022. DETs use the footage of IP cameras to investigate cases and develop strategies for operations. DETs also distribute leaflets and warning notices to deliver health messages to the public.
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 2022, there were 5,200 hawkers carrying out business in licensed fixed-pitch stalls and 304 licensed itinerant hawkers.
The management and control of hawkers is the responsibility of about 2,300 trained staff who are assigned to about 180 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 5,980 convictions for offences related to hawking in 2022.
In mid-2022, there were 105 vacant hawker pitches suitable for re-allocation and the Department invited eligible applicants on the waiting list for selection of these vacant hawker pitches. The selection was completed in November 2022, and 84 hawker licences have been issued by the Department to successful applicants by the end of 2022.
Shop Front Extension Problem
Illegal extension of business from shops is a street management issue. A number of government departments are involved and have their respective roles to play. The Department accords priority on enforcement against cases causing obstruction to scavenging operations or cases relating to illegal hawking or unauthorized extension of food business and was also committed to participating in joint-departmental efforts to tackle the shop front extension problem. In 2022, about 5,800 prosecutions and 15,788 fixed penalty notices were instituted against shop front extensions.
In order to tackle obstruction problem in public place caused by shop front extension in a more effective manner, the Department and the Police have gradually conducted joint operations of a new enforcement strategy in all districts. Apart from stepping up prosecution against the shop offenders, the Department would remove the obstructions if they are not removed within the time limit as specified by the Police. This will impose a higher cost on non-compliance shop operators for causing obstructions on the streets, thereby achieving a greater deterrent effect. In 2022, the Department and the Police mounted a total of 662 new mode of joint enforcement operations, and the shop front extension problem in many districts have been improved remarkably.
Lunar New Year Fairs
The Lunar New Year fairs were originally scheduled to be held in late January to early February 2022. However, after taking into account the development of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Government decided to cancel the fairs so as to protect the health of stall owners and the public on site and to reduce the risk of the spread of the disease. Apart from arranging full refund of the stall licence fee to the successful stall bidders in accordance with the licence agreement, the Department also granted them an ex-gratia payment at 50 per cent of the stall licence fee under the fifth round of the Anti-epidemic Fund.
Public Markets and Cooked Food Venues
The FEHD is in charge of 73 wet markets, with about 13,500 stalls offering commodities ranging from fresh food to household items, and about 940 stalls in 39 cooked food centres and 23 free-standing cooked food markets. As of end 2022, 11,605 stalls were let out, 713 stalls were vacant, and 1,136 stalls frozen for designated purposes such as re-siting and renovation. Stalls are normally let through auction.
In 2022, 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, as well as organising game booths and workshops and redemption of souvenirs.
The second round of the subsidy scheme for promotion of contactless payment in public markets and hawker stalls under the Anti-epidemic Fund completed in January 2022. A total of 10.845 million of subsidy was disbursed to 2,169 eligible applicants.
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 2022, 1,182 prosecutions were instituted against market stall operators for breach of statutory provisions.
Cemeteries, Crematoria and Columbaria
The Department manages six government crematoria, 10 public cemeteries, 11 public columbaria, two keeping facilities and one cremation facility for abortuses for the provision of cremation and burial services to the public. Among them, the Home of Forever Love is the pioneer cremation facility dedicated for abortuses of less than 24 weeks' gestation which was commissioned on 26 September 2022. The Department 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 97.0% (59,685) of the deceased were cremated. In response to the surging demand for cremation services since the advent of the fifth wave of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Department acted promptly to increase the cremation sessions, and commissioning of the two new cremators at Wo Hop Shek Crematorium was also advanced to early April. Except for the Cheung Chau Crematorium due to low utilisation, the remaining crematoria were in operation round the clock, and all crematoria continued to provide cremation services on the day of the Ching Ming Festival, on which the services all along are not provided. Various initiatives ensured sufficient cremation sessions were available for booking.
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 approved one licence application and one exemption application; gave approvals in principle for two licence applications, two exemption applications and 42 applications for temporary suspension of liability (in addition to the above cases), and refused applications for specified instruments from three private columbaria. As at end of 2022, 205 applications for specified instruments submitted by 87 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 the 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 350 site inspections and investigation on about 50 cases of suspected contravention of the Ordinance were conducted, resulting in prosecution against the operators of four columbaria.
Green Burial
The Department has been actively promoting a more environmental friendly and sustainable means of burial by encouraging the public to adopt green burial to scatter ashes of their ascendants in its 13 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 1,012 cases of scattering ashes at sea and 7,695 cases of scattering ashes in the Gardens of Remembrance in 2022. 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 2022, more than 7,200 participants from over 2,900 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 2022, some 27,000 users had registered and about 24,000 memorial webpages had been created. Besides, the Department launched the Green Burial Central Register in January 2019 to encourage the public to plan ahead and share their green burial wish with their family members. By the end of 2022, 9,572 members of the public registered their wish for green burial.