HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Page 16 of 126
25
In addition, the depth of water in the lily pond and model boating pool has been reduced to 400 mm. And at night adequate lighting will be provided in order to reinforce these safety arrangements.
MR. B. A. BERNACCHI (in English):—Mr. Chairman, I thank Mr. WONG for a very full answer. I only have one supplementary and that is the last part of paragraph 4, and security services will be provided within the park'. I think he said adequate security services. What type or types of security services does he mean?
MR. RONNIE WONG MAN-CHIU (in Cantonese):—We will adopt the usual practice i.e. we will deploy some security guards to patrol the area particularly after the tragedy at Kowloon Park. The department has decided to step up these patrols. I am sure that Mr. BERNACCHI could rest assured of this point.
4. MR. FUNG KWONG-CHUNG asked the following question (in Cantonese):— The heavy downpour on the morning of May 8 led to serious floodings throughout the urban area and caused much inconvenience to the public. Though it is the responsibility of the Drainage Services Department to clear blocked drainage, there are suggestions that the main cause of blockage is the rubbish on the road surface. Some people question the Department's existing policy on contracting-out of manual street cleansing service and cutting cleansing staff, claiming this gives rise to this problem. I would therefore like to raise the following questions:
(1) How often is street cleansing done? Has there been any reduction recently? If so, how does this affect street cleanliness?
(2) Is it possible to clean the streets earlier in the morning before the rush hour of going to school and office, or try to clean the streets in the evening so as to avoid the recurrence of floodings?
(3) Is there adequate manpower resources for the cleansing section of the Department? Is the staff ageing problem serious? Is there any recruitment for new staff?
(4) It has been suggested that the efficiency of the contracting-out scheme of manual street cleansing is very low, is this true? Has the Council monitored the implementation of this scheme and made assessment accordingly?
DR. LEUNG PING-CHUNG, VICE-CHAIRMAN OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, I would like to answer the question on behalf of Mr. PAO.
The question is in four parts and relates to the flooding which occurred during the storm on 8 May 1992.
As regards the first part of this question concerning the frequency of street sweeping provided by the Department, the normal practice in built-up areas is for this to be conducted four times a day. However, for areas which are litter blackspots or hawking zones, the frequency may be increased to as much as six to eight times per day depending on actual demand.
Page 16 of 126