HEALTH
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officers, General Duties Teams work closely with the Royal Hong Kong Police Force in containing illegal hawkers and taking necessary enforcement action.
Abattoirs
The two government abattoirs - in Kennedy Town on Hong Kong Island and in Cheung Sha Wan in Kowloon - continued to supply the bulk of the population with fresh meat. During the year, 2 676 000 pigs, 134 000 head of cattle and 12 000 goats were slaughtered in these two abattoirs.
Slaughtering services in the New Territories are provided by licensed private slaughter- houses in Kwai Chung, Yuen Long and Tai Po which handled 871 000 pigs and 42 000 head of cattle during the year. The Kwai Chung works can slaughter 3 000 pigs daily and also helps to meet the demand from Kowloon. A new abattoir to be built in Sheung Shui will serve the needs of the new towns in the northeastern New Territories. Animals slaughtered in government abattoirs and private slaughterhouses are inspected by specially trained health inspectors of the Urban Services Department.
New Territories Services Department
The responsibilities and functions of the New Territories Services Department in the New Territories are similar to those of the City Services Department in the urban areas of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. They include the maintenance of satisfactory standards of public health, the administration of such services as cemeteries and crematoria, cleansing and pest control, the control of hawkers and the management of public markets and recreational facilities.
During the year, the department's commitments continued to increase in keeping with the rapid pace of new town development. Besides making better use of existing resources, additional projects were being planned to enable the department to cope with the development. A total of 22 capital projects were completed in 1984 and 425 new projects were in the planning stage. These included markets and cooked food centres, pleasure and sports grounds, nurseries, indoor games halls, swimming pools, beach buildings, crematoria and columbaria, public toilets, and refuse collection points.
Cemeteries and Crematoria
It is the government's policy to encourage cremation rather than burial for disposal of the dead. During 1984, 63 per cent of the dead were cremated and several additional cremation facilities were provided. These included a 2 000 niche columbarium at the Diamond Hill Crematorium and the new Fu Shan Crematorium with 9 700 niches in Sha Tin. Human remains in public cemeteries are subject to exhumation after six years. The exhumed remains are then either cremated or removed to an urn cemetery.
The Urban Council operates two funeral depots, one on Hong Kong Island and one in Kowloon, which provide free services for the disposal of the dead. In the New Territories, there are five public cemeteries, three public crematoria and eight private cemeteries; and in the urban areas there are five public cemeteries, two public crematoria, and 18 private cemeteries. There are two war cemeteries, under the management of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.