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complaints related to municipal services, the problem of water leakage in private high-rises makes me most dissatisfied and disgruntled. Hong Kong is one of the most densely-populated cities in the world, in which multi-storey buildings form the major type of abode. As the city develops, problems arising out of the ageing of buildings become more serious. High-rises over 20 years old are fraught with problems that they can well be described as diseased. Blocks of such age are quite common in the urban areas. To my knowledge, the Department received close to 2000 water leakage cases last year. These high-rises can be classified as fortunate and unfortunate ones. The former refer to public housing managed by the Housing Department. The government follows a programme and has both the authority and capacity to maintain, or rebuild such buildings if the conditions are poor. The unfortunate ones are the many private high-rises, in which daily maintenance and management have to be handled by residents themselves as they cannot enjoy privileged treatment from the government. Water leakage poses a big trouble to them. It causes ceilings to peel off, wardrobes to become mouldy and electricity to leak. It also brings about conflicts between owners and residents, since leaks are difficult to trace as illustrated in a number of cases. The department responsible for handling water leakage, the Urban Services Department, the executive arm of the Council, applies only the fluorescent green test, a test most primitive, most ineffective and yet is still the only one being used to ascertain whether the flat upstairs should be held responsible. After the test, prima facie evidence of the source of leakage is established only when the complaining flat shows a coloured water stain. It is not until then that action can be taken against the flat concerned under Sections 12(1)(a) and 127 of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Chapter 132), requesting it to make repairs or face prosecution. However, if the coloured powder test fails to trace the source, the problem cannot be resolved. Of all water leakage cases handled by me, 90% were unsubstantiated. It is because when water is discharged on the flat upstairs, the water seeps through and is filtered by the concrete, thus rendering the possibility of the presence of a coloured powder very slim. Faced with these insoluble problems, some owners simply sell their flats at bargain prices and move out, whereas others resort to either repeatedly complaining to Councillors or the Department or succumbing to adversity and resigning themselves to the situation. Some may carry out interior decoration and seal the affected area with tiles, whereby directing the water to the flat below, passing the water leakage problem further downwards. With the recurrence and the existence of such a problem, quite a number of private blocks have been structurally damaged. If the problem is still neglected and not properly tackled, disputes and complaints will never cease. It is no exaggeration that some day our city will be full of hazards.
The Urban Council's service to the community and its endeavours to create an ideal living environment have won public recognition. However, the Council seems incapable of dealing with the above problem. At a monthly meeting last year, I already raised queries on the water leakage problem. It is such a pity that the issue has still not been given much attention. I would like to take this opportunity to once again strongly urge the Council to take the matter seriously. The Council should set up a working group to investigate, and, together with other Government departments, study the feasibility of procuring new equipment so as to come up with a more practical, efficient method to tackle the above problem. I hope that the municipal services would become more efficient and perfect in the future.
Mr. Chairman, with these remarks, I support the motion.
MR. JUSTIN WONG CHUN (in English): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, colleagues. I am delighted to deliver my virgin speech today. Like doing anything the first time, I shall make my speech short and brief and hopefully touch the right button.
Today I am going to focus on a love and hate situation that is very close to all of us - an issue which this Council has tried very hard to solve over the years. We love hawkers because they provide us cheaper goods, but we hate illegal hawking because for a long time it has become a public nuisance which we all have learned to tolerate; it threatens our health, public hygiene, our urban environment and attracts triad infiltration.
But statistically, illegal hawking has all the symptoms showing it to be a very serious problem. By the end of March 1993, Urban Services Department estimates showed there were more than 6400 unlicensed hawkers. We all know the true picture is far worse - it could well be double or possibly many times that figure. The reason is simply because it takes very little to be an unlicensed hawker and the returns are great. Using that figure to compare with the 12,200 licensed hawkers registered with the USD by the end of March last year, the true picture is further distorted. A more accurate projection of the problem may well be the fact that there were 85,000 convictions of illegal hawking last year, a constant increase in the last decade.
This volume of conviction surely beats many other forms of conviction by a long shot.
Although illegal hawking is not a criminal offence, it certainly has proved to be as dangerous as many other crimes in certain ways.
We have seen how young children were scalded by hot boiling oil tipped by cooked food hawkers and, of course, the ever-rising hepatitis outbreaks every summer are another threat.
All bear proof that illegal hawking needs to be treated with more deterrent. But the reality is the few hundred dollars standard fines. This does not even justify the fact that the Urban Services Department employs some 2000 staff of the General Duties Team as one of the purposes for hawker clearance.
Many measures now used to tackle illegal hawking are outdated. Besides low fines, there are the old-fashioned clearance methods and outdated policy. Although hawker clearance can be carried out by the police or the GDT, some
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