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HEALTH
heavy demands in a manner which is acceptable by modern standards. Also, the haw- kers surrounding the markets occupy land and street-space which is badly needed for development and traffic circulation and often their primitive stalls create health and environmental problems. The Urban Council, recognising the continuing im- portance of public markets in Hong Kong and the need for urgent measures to deal with the problem of street hawking, has launched an extensive programme for the reconstruction of old markets as well as the construction of new ones in areas of rapid population growth. The new markets are built to modern standards featuring larger, brighter stalls with improved facilities, to accommodate as many as possible of the hawkers who formerly traded in the open air. Particular emphasis is being placed on the provision of adequate market facilities for resettlement estates, where lack of facilities has resulted in a considerable hawker problem.
Although the implementation of the Urban Council's policy on hawkers has been hampered by lack of manpower for control and law enforcement along with the difficulty of obtaining land on which to construct bazaars, a number of major hawker operations have been carried out and continuous containing action is being taken with the resources available. The policy has now been endorsed by the Governor in Council and, as a result, substantial increases in staff and resources have been approved. The Public Health and Urban Services Ordinance has also been amended and new Hawker By-laws and Regulations have been made to make hawker control more effective.
Two government abattoirs are in operation: one at Kennedy Town on Hong Kong Island and the other at Cheung Sha Wan in Kowloon. Each abattoir was designed to handle 1,350 pigs and 170 cattle on the basis of a daily eight-hour shift. Kennedy Town Abattoir now handles, on average, 2,857 pigs and 188 cattle and Cheung Sha Wan 4,387 pigs and 250 cattle every working day. At festivals, the kill rises and on the two days preceding the Lunar New Year, some 6,000 pigs were slaughtered at Cheung Sha Wan Abattoir alone. This phenomenal kill is an indication of the increasing affluence of the community. Because meat consumption is increasing considerably, plans are in hand to expand the existing slaughtering facilities by the construction of an additional pig-dressing line at each abattoir. A second abattoir in Kowloon and the provision of other facilities in the New Terri- tories are also under consideration. There are at present two private slaughterhouses in the New Territories. Inspection of slaughtered animals both in government abat- toirs and in the private slaughterhouses is carried out by specially trained health inspectors of the Urban Services Department.
The New Territories Division of the Urban Services Department is fully and directly responsible for environmental hygiene, cleansing, hawkers and markets in the New Territories. It works in close liaison with the Medical and Health Depart- ment, the New Territories Administration and the Resettlement Department. The Urban Services Department, fully realising that standards in the rural New Territories are below those of urban areas, has made the problem of pollution and lack of basic services a priority task.
The Urban Services Department directly controls 11 public cemeteries (of which two are closed) and three public crematoria, and supervises the operation of 28