HEALTH
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A survey of wall-stall hawkers was completed during the year and the operators were given an opportunity to apply for licences. The hawker records system was completely overhauled to provide an efficient means of processing applications and renewing hawker licences.
The Centre Street Hawker Centre, completed in September, is Hong Kong's first two-storey indoor hawker centre and the first to be equipped with custom-built hawker stalls featuring built-in electricity and water supply points. The split-level building has a hawker centre, a cooked food centre, a children's playground, a public toilet and a refuse collection point.
Abattoirs
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The urban areas are served by two abattoirs at Kennedy Town on Hong Kong Island and at Cheung Sha Wan in Kowloon. Both are operated by the Urban Services Department on behalf of the Urban Council. During the year, 3,111,640 animals were slaughtered in the two abattoirs, a 2.6 per cent increase over the 1976 total.
To cope with the ever-increasing number of pigs being slaughtered, a site adjacent to the Cheung Sha Wan Abattoir was acquired for the construction of lairage space for an additional 4,000 pigs. Building work has begun and is expected to be com- pleted in mid-1978.
Work on mechanising the cattle dressing lines in the Kennedy Town Abattoir is now in hand. Once this is completed in mid-1978, similar work will be carried out at the Cheung Sha Wan Abattoir.
Production at the Kennedy Town by-products plant increased 30 per cent after it was modernised in March.
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Services in the New Territories
Unlike the other two regions covering Hong Kong and Kowloon, which are within the jurisdiction of the Urban Council, the New Territories Region of the Urban Services Department is under the direct jurisdiction of the government. The region looks after environmental hygiene, cleansing, hawkers and markets, slaughterhouses, recreation and amenities, pest control, and cemeteries and crematoria in the New Territories.
The region works closely with other government departments operating in the New Territories with a common aim of providing better services and facilities for residents. It also is the responsibility of the region to ensure that facilities and services are balanced against the rapid land and housing development being undertaken in the New Territories, particularly in the three new towns of Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun and Sha Tin.
During the year, the New Territories Regional Headquarters were expanded con- siderably to improve the quality of services and to cope with the demand for new services. Additional posts were created in the Administration, Secretariat, Transport, Cleansing, Licensing, and Recreation and Amenities Sections. The enlarged headquar- ters will enable the region to play a more positive role in all policy and operational matters in the New Territories.
A 16-kilometre stretch of the Kam Tin River and its tributaries at Yuen Long that had long been polluted by wastes discharged from pigsties and farms was cleared