HEALTH
projects. The ACAN Youth Advisory Group, comprising a cross-section of young people, continued to give advice on educational and publicity materials and activities.
The ACAN Drug Abuse Telephone Enquiry Service received 1710 enquiries, the majority seeking information on treatment facilities.
International Action
Hong Kong continued to play an active international role, maintaining close links with the United Nations, inter-governmental agencies such as Interpol and the Customs Co- operation Council, as well as with individual-governments. Hong Kong took part in 25 regional and international meetings and seminars concerned with anti-drug policies, law enforcement, treatment and rehabilitation, and preventive education.
The techniques and methods employed in Hong Kong have made it an important venue for training anti-drugs personnel from overseas. During the year, 231 people from 16 countries and international bodies came to Hong Kong on study visits and training courses, either through bilateral arrangements with their governments or under the sponsorship of a United Nations body. Hong Kong Narcotics Bureau and Customs Officers travelled overseas as lecturers or consultants on training courses related to anti-drugs work.
Environmental Hygiene
The Urban Services Department and the Regional Services Department, working under the Urban Council and Regional Council, are responsible for street cleaning, collection and removal of nightsoil, cleansing of gullies, management of public toilets and bathhouses, pest control and services for the dead.
A regular workforce of about 8 535 is employed in cleansing duties, employing a fleet of 564 specialised vehicles which include refuse collection vehicles, street washers, mechanical sweepers, nightsoil collectors and gully emptiers.
Streets are swept, either manually or mechanically, from four to eight times a day for busy thoroughfares to once every second day for village lanes. Streets and lanes are also hosed down where local conditions warrant. Hawker areas and refuse collection points are washed regularly.
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About 4 755 tonnes of refuse and junk are collected daily, including 90 tonnes removed by a contractual barging service from outlying islands for disposal at sites on the mainland. The Regional Council operates a daily junk collection service in public housing estates in rapidly-developing areas of the New Territories. A nightsoil collection service is also provided daily in those areas without a water-borne sewage and disposal system. These services are free.
There are 1033 refuse collection points and 1 557 bin sites in the territory. Under an improvement plan, existing rural refuse collection points are being upgraded and more attractive rectangular-shaped rubbish bins are replacing the cylindrical metal ones at refuse collection points, in government buildings and in housing developments.
The two departments are continuing to contract-out some of their cleansing services to private contractors to reduce the involvement of direct departmental labour and to enhance cost-effectiveness. In the urban areas, contracts cover 306 public toilets and 41 bathhouses, and two squatter villages. In the New Territories, cleansing services have been contracted-out for some years in Luen Wo Hui and Shek Wu Hui in North District.
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