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HEALTH
during the year. The operation took a special taskforce of 25 men 50 days to complete. A similar clean-up along the section of the tributaries of the River Indus, between the Kowloon Canton Railway line and Tai Po Road to the east of Wo Hop Shek, started in June and was completed in October.
Some 29 Urban Services projects were completed during the year. These projects, mostly public works items, provided a wide range of urban services, including markets, cooked food bazaars, playgrounds, gardens and refuse collection points.
To cater for the popular pastime of swimming, 25 gazetted beaches in the New Territories are managed by the Urban Services Department. During the year, Butterfly Beach, Pui O Beach and two beaches at Cheung Sha were provided with life-saving and first-aid services.
Cemeteries and Crematoria
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There are five public cemeteries, one public crematorium and eight private cemeteries in the New Territories; and six public cemeteries, two public crematoria and 19 private cemeteries in the urban areas.
The Urban Council operates two funeral depots that provide free facilities for conducting inexpensive funeral services. The Tung Wah Group of Hospitals also provides facilities for funeral services on a non-profit-making basis. Construction of a new funeral depot to replace the one at Hung Hom is now under way.
It has been the policy of both the Urban Council and the government to promote cremation as an inexpensive but dignified method of disposing of the dead. During the year, 37 per cent of the dead were cremated. In July, work started at Kwai Chung on a crematorium that is expected to come into service in November, 1978. A start was made in November on another crematorium in Kowloon to replace the Diamond Hill crematorium. It is scheduled to be completed by mid-1979. These two projects, together with the existing crematorium at Cape Collinson, will provide an even distribution of cremation facilities throughout Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories.
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