HEALTH
Road Traffic (Expressways) Regulations, which are cleaned by the Highways Department through its contractors.
Waste is collected daily throughout the year including Sundays and public holidays, except Lunar New Year's Day. The USD has 245 and the RSD 114 refuse collection routes for collecting both domestic waste and junk. Contracting-out of waste collection was introduced in the RSD in May 1993 and about 30 per cent of waste in the Provisional Regional Council area was collected by private contractors.
The provisional municipal councils have sponsored interested groups to organise plastic waste recycling activities under a funding scheme introduced in April 1997. To tie in with the government's Waste Reduction Plan, the the Provisional Urban Council and Provisional Regional Council set up material recovery points for separate collection of recyclables in selected public housing estates and at major refuse collection points. Contractors were hired to provide separate collection services for source-separated recyclable materials in Tai Po and Sha Tin.
To help prevent the spread of the enterovirus infections, the USD and the RSD maintained frequent checks on chlorine levels in public swimming pools. Inspection of private swimming pools and places of public entertainment with ball-pools for children were also stepped up.
To meet the public demand for higher standard public toilet facilities, the Provisional Urban Council is continuing the public toilet refurbishment programme to upgrade all the existing public toilets. In 1998, 39 public toilets in the urban areas were refurbished.
Under Phase I of the Provisional Regional Council's improvement scheme, 502 aqua privies (village toilets without flushing) were refurbished. All trough-type toilets (21 in number) were converted to squatting/pedestal type water closets. Phase II of the scheme began in November 1997 with the upgrading of 55 flushed toilets. This is expected to be completed in 2000.
Trial schemes involving various types of vacuum toilet systems were in progress, RSD will adopt the most successful type with a view to improving the existing village- type toilets.
Environmental Health Education
The Department of Health's Health Education Unit promotes environmental health and food hygiene through territory-wide education programmes. Health messages are disseminated through printed materials, mobile broadcasting, telephone hotlines and the mass media. Health education materials are also available from the unit's
resource centre.
Working with the provisional municipal councils, the unit conducted several health education activities during the year, including the 1998 Public Health Exhibition cum Health Education Video Competition and the 1998 Food Hygiene Campaign for members of the food trade, school teachers and the general public. Other publicity campaigns on mosquito and rodent prevention and prevention of nuisance from dripping air-conditioners were also staged.
The Provisional Urban Council also organises health education programmes to cater for the specific needs of the urban area. The Restaurant Hygiene Competition and the Healthy Menu and Healthy Cooking Competition were staged for the
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