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.
Tackling Hygiene Black Spots
Under the Government Programme on Tackling Hygiene Black Spots, the Department and various government departments have been working together to tackle hygiene blackspots over the territory. In 2023, the Department conducted more than 20 000 special cleansing operations at about 240 hygiene blackspots under its purview and stepped up inspection and enforcement at the same time. At present, more than 90% of the hygiene blackspots under the Department's purview have been removed. The Department will continue to monitor and remove hygiene blackspots at streets and rear lanes to meet the target set out in the 2023 Policy Address, which is to remove 60% of the remaining environmental hygiene blackspots by end-2024 as compared to end-2023.
Street Sweeping
The Department and its cleansing contractors have a combined workforce of about 13,200 engaged in the provision of public cleansing services, including street sweeping and washing, gully emptying, waste collection, and management of public toilets and refuse collection points. About 82% 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, tailored to the specific 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 and flyovers. Special cleansing squads operate on a need basis to clean refuse dumping black spots. Lorries are deployed 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 11,200 litter containers are located at public places including bus stops, major road junctions 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 by the Department in public places, including pavements, lanes, hawker concentrated areas and hygiene blackspots. A total of 151 street washing teams from the Department's in-house staff and street cleansing 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 high speed roads and flyovers are cleared once every six weeks by mechanical gully emptiers after midnight when traffic is light.
Refuse Collection
There are 3,393 refuse collection points (RCPs) in Hong Kong. These include 163 permanent off-street RCPs, 8 temporary RCPs, 901 village-type RCPs/ RCPs with temporary structures, and 2,321 bin sites. About 5,820 tonnes of household and street waste is collected daily and delivered to refuse transfer stations or landfills. The Department has outsourced about 80% 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 renewing and deploying waste collection facilities, including solar-powered aluminium RCPs with automated functions, solar-powered refuse compactors and compacting refuse bins at existing service locations.
Public Toilets Cleansing
Public toilets are provided mainly at tourist spots and busy areas. Altogether, 810 public toilets are managed by the Department - 91 on Hong Kong Island, 60 in Kowloon, and 659 in the New Territories and on outlying islands. In addition, there are 33 aqua privies in the New Territories and on outlying islands.
To maintain the cleanliness of public toilets, the Department arranged toilet attendant services in high-traffic areas and tourist spots to provide immediate cleansing services, in addition to regular deep cleansing. The "Smart Toilet System (STS)" prototype developed by the Department in collaboration with the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) has been further extended to two newly built public toilets in Pak Shek Kok and Lai Chi Wo. The Department will continue to work with the EMSD to review and enhance the STS.
Sanitary Nuisances
The Department deals with environmental nuisances, including those caused by dripping air-conditioners and accumulation of refuse, and has 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 2023, the Department handled about 31,100, 7,900 and 45,000 related complaint cases respectively.
To effectively promote knowledge about water seepage in buildings, the Customer Service Team (CST) under the Joint Office conducted a total of 75 educational and promotional activities in various districts for members of the public and property management companies during the year. These activities included setting up promotion booths and conducting seminars to arouse greater public awareness of water seepage matters, clarify maintenance and management responsibilities for related property owners, and highlight the government's work in dealing with water seepage in buildings.
The Department implemented on 1 July 2022 the simplified "Scheme of Participation by Property Management Agents in Tackling Water Seepage in Residential Buildings " in private housing estates. Under this initiative, staff members of participating property management companies are tasked with identifying the sources of water seepage in building units and facilitating the resolution process by coordinating and advising residents, either through mediation or civil means. Since its implementation, a total of 34 participating property management companies had received over 2,400 cases of water seepage as at 31 December 2023, of which more than 1,500 cases had been successfully resolved through coordination, mediation, improvement works, or repairs to common areas within the housing estates.
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. As at 2023, this Department had set up nine such dedicated teams in order to tackle the problem of dripping air-conditioners more effectively.
Litter Offences and Public Cleanliness
The amended Fixed Penalty (Public Cleanliness and Obstruction) Ordinance has been effective from 22 October 2023. The Ordinance empowers officers of the Health Inspector, Foreman and Hawker Control grades of the Department to issue $3,000 fixed penalty notices for specified cleanliness offences, including littering, spitting, unauthorised display of bills or posters, and dog fouling in public place and to issue $6,000 fixed penalty notices for unlawful depositing of waste. In 2023, about 44,400 fixed penalty notices were issued by FEHD staff against these cleanliness offences. The enforcement officers are also 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 1,890 convictions were recorded.
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 to curb illegal deposits of refuse. The Department had established 52 Dedicated Enforcement Teams (DETs). Making use of footage of IP cameras to investigate cases and develop strategies for operations, while distributing 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 against which enforcement action is taken in accordance with the law, 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 2023, there were 5,053 hawkers carrying out business in licensed fixed-pitch stalls and 270 licensed itinerant hawkers.
The management and control of hawkers is the responsibility of about 2,400 trained staff who are assigned to about 170 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 4,679 convictions for offences related to hawking in 2023.
Shop Front Extension Problem
Illegal extension of business from shops is a street management issue which cuts across the purview of a number of government departments which have their respective roles to play. The Department accords priority to enforcement against cases causing obstruction to scavenging operations or cases relating to illegal hawking or unauthorized extension of food business, and is also committed to participating in inter-departmental efforts to tackle the shop front extension problem. In 2023, about 3,070 prosecutions and 7,713 fixed penalty notices were instituted against shop front extensions respectively.
In order to tackle obstruction problem in public place caused by shop front extension more effectively, the Department and the Police adopted a new enforcement strategy. 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 to the shop operators for causing obstructions on the streets, thereby achieving a greater deterrent effect. In 2023, the Department and the Police mounted a total of 1,612 new mode of joint enforcement operations, and the shop front extension problem in many districts have improved remarkably.
After the amendment of Fixed Penalty (Public Cleanliness and Obstruction) Ordinance (Cap. 570) in 2023, the fixed penalty for shop front extension offences has been raised from $1,500 to $6,000.
Lunar New Year Fairs
In 2023, the Department organised 15 Lunar New Year Fairs in 13 districts from 16 to 22 January, the Che Kung Festival Fair in Sha Tin from 19 January to 5 February, and the Lam Tsuen Fong Ma Po Fair in Tai Po from 22 January to 5 February. There were about 970 stalls offering seasonal flowers and plants. The Fairs provided venues for the public to purchase festive flowers to welcome the Lunar New Year.
Public Markets and Cooked Food Venues
The FEHD is in charge of 74 wet markets, with about 12,500 stalls offering commodities ranging from fresh food to household items, and about 930 stalls in 38 cooked food centres and 22 free-standing cooked food markets. As of end-2023, 11,468 stalls were let out, 1,022 stalls were vacant, and 1,092 stalls were frozen for designated purposes such as re-siting and renovation. Stalls are normally let through auction.
In 2023, the Department conducted promotional activities to enhance patronage of public markets, including decorations and celebration activities during key festivals as well as organising game booths and workshops and redemption of souvenirs.
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 2023, 1,000 prosecutions were instituted against market stall operators for breach of statutory provisions.
In order to foster clean markets, the Department's market service contractors have increased the frequency of market cleansing operations from July 2023. The Department also addresses irregularities caused by stallholders in a phased manner. The first phase priority is to handle severe irregularities (including the illegal occupation of the communal areas, obstructing the barrier-free facilities and disruption of the normal use of public facilities) and/ or fire safety issues. In 2023, 360 verbal warnings, 42 warning letters and 237 summonses were instituted against severe irregularities. In addition, the Department is conducting facelifting works of about 40 toilets (each comprising male, female and/ or accessible unisex toilets) in about 30 public markets and cooked food markets from 2023-24 to 2026-27.
Cemeteries, Crematoria and Columbaria
The Department manages six government crematoria, 10 public cemeteries, 12 public columbaria, two keeping facilities and one cremation facility for abortuses for the provision of cremation and burial services to the public. Among them, Cape Collinson-San Ha Columbarium was commissioned on 19 July 2023, providing 25,340 new extendable niches. 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 93.0% (52,795) of the deceased were cremated. To enhance public convenience, booking of cremation sessions can be made either 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. Additionally, online booking options are available.
Currently, the supply of public niche is adequate. In addition to the comprehensive allocation of public niches once a year, the Department also accepts applications from the public year round for allocation of new niches at Tsang Tsui Columbarium on a monthly basis. In 2023, all eligible applicants were allocated new niches without waiting.
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. As at end of 2023, the Licensing Board had made certain decisions on all applications for specified instruments in respect of pre-cut-off private columbaria, including approving four licence and exemption applications.
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, 370 site inspections and investigation on 23 cases of suspected contravention of the Ordinance were conducted.
Green Burial
In 2023, there were a total of 9,381 green burial cases, which accounted for 16.5% of the total deaths that year, making it the highest usage rate of green burials to date. The Green Burial Campaign Launch Ceremony in October has kicked off a series of promotional activities with the theme of "Green Burial - Love Living On" to further encourage the public to adopt green burial, which makes the environment sustainable and endures love. The public can adopt green burial by scattering ashes of their ascendants in the Department’s 13 Gardens of Remembrance or in designated Hong Kong waters. The Department provides free ferry service for families of the deceased to scatter ashes at sea. There were 1,144 cases of scattering ashes at sea and 7,465 cases of scattering ashes in the Gardens of Remembrance in 2023. 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 2023, more than 8,700 participants from over 3,600 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 2023, some 36,000 users had registered and about 27,000 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 2023, 11,838 members of the public registered their wish for green burial.
In 2023, the Department commissioned a design thinking consultancy study on "Green Burial Service and Promotion" (the Study) to gain a better understanding of users’ needs and feelings in order to facilitate the formulation of more effective measures for the promotion of public understanding and acceptance of green burial, and to improve green burial services. Based on the findings of the Study, the Department is now working on integration of e-services to facilitate applications and will improve services to provide better user experience.
Pest Control
The Department is the Government's adviser on pest control matters, and is responsible for handling problems of pests affecting public health. In meeting this goal, the Department adopts a multi-pronged approach, putting equal emphasis on the continuous improvements in environmental hygiene and effective use of pesticides. It regularly updates its control methodologies and technologies, making reference to the latest recommendations of the WHO. The Department works closely with the pest control trade, and exchanges views with them, in order to uphold the professional standards of pest control practices.
Risk Assessment and Surveillance of Mosquitoes
The Department has set up Gravitraps in 64 survey areas across the territory. The Gravidtrap Index (i.e. the percentage of locations with activity of Aedes albopictus detected) and the Density Index (i.e. the average number of Aedes albopictus adult found in each positive Gravidtrap) are released on a monthly basis to facilitate the relevant government departments, the public and property management companies to take timely anti-mosquito measures. In 2023, the average gravidtrap index and average density index recorded in the community were 5.4% and 1.3 respectively. The inter-departmental Anti-mosquito Campaign in 2023 was conducted in three phases. A series of operations to remove accumulated water and perform mosquito prevention and control works were conducted in public markets, residential buildings, streets and back lanes, construction sites, vacant land and roadside construction sites in various districts. In addition, the Department carried out work against malaria-transmitting mosquitoes, covering some 600 streams. The works yielded favourable results in 2023, revealing no evidence of local transmission of malaria.
During the year, the Department conducted 800,789 inspections with 76,855 mosquito breeding places found and eliminated, 46 warning letters issued, and 163 summonses taken out. Legal action was taken against those who allowed mosquitoes to breed on their premises.
Risk Assessment and Surveillance of Rodents
To keep track of the extent of rodent infestation, rodent infestation surveys have been conducted since 2000. In view of the limitations of the rodent survey, the Department started the trial on using thermal imaging cameras with artificial intelligence technology for conducting the Rodent Activity Survey in 2023 and adopted Rodent Absence Rate, a more scientific and representative index, to replace Rodent Infestation Survey and Rodent Infestation Rate. The new method is expected to be fully implemented in 2024.
In addition to perform routine rodent control duties, the Department encourages community participation in its efforts to control rodents through the annual territory wide inter-departmental Anti-rodent Campaign and fully supports the "Cross-sectoral Territory-wide Anti-rodent Action" led by the Environment and Ecology Bureau. The Department had conducted strategic anti-rodent operations at 108 priority rodent black spots throughout the territory and eliminated around 60% of priority rodent black spots (a total of 70) in 2023, achieving the key performance indicator set out in the 2022 Policy Address. During the year, the Department handled a total of 11,075 rodent infestation cases in various districts, issued 90 written warnings, trapped 63,344 live rodents, collected 34,496 dead rodents. Additionally, 18,485 rat holes were filled.
Moreover, the Department continues to carry out the rat-flea index to assess the risk of plague transmission. In 2023, the overall rat-flea index at waterfront and land ports was 0.17 while at cooked food markets and wholesale food markets was 0.21, indicating that the risk of plague transmission was low.
Management of vector-borne diseases
To guard Hong Kong against vector-borne diseases, such as malaria, dengue fever, Zika virus infection, Japanese encephalitis (JE), chikungunya fever, plague, scrub typhus, urban typhus, spotted fever and hantavirus infection, the FEHD works with various government departments such as the Department of Health, the Housing Department, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and the Home Affairs Department. Together, they put in place appropriate vector control measures as well as promptly initiate investigations once a disease is reported. In compliance with international health regulations, the Department has specifically set up a number of monitoring stations at the Airport. In 2023, the Department conducted about 900 mosquito surveys. The monthly Gravidtrap Index for Aedes albopictus at the port remained below 1.0%, while the Rat-flea Index recorded in the Rat-flea Survey was zero.
In addition, regular communication between professionals from Guangdong, Macao and Hong Kong is maintained to share surveillance results at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge for better understanding of vector distribution in areas under the purview of the three parties.