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areas, and also the recovery of waste papers in commercial areas and schools. Such a scheme will bring financial benefits as well as help to protect the environment.
Street washing is also very important to the cleanliness of our streets. It helps to clear sewage and reduce dust. As we all know, Hong Kong's air pollution index has risen to a high 129 recently. Through street washing which will reduce dust, the amount of respirable suspended particulates in air which constitute the air pollution index can be reduced. At present, streets in built-up areas are washed at least once a week, whereas those in other areas are washed at least bi-weekly. The Democratic Party is of the opinion that the frequency of street washing must at least be doubled in order to significantly improve the cleanliness of our streets. Apart from conducting daily patrols, the supervisory departmental staff should advise as to how the frequency of street washing should be increased, basing on such factors as the state of cleanliness of streets or sample measurements of respirable suspended particulates.
One of the problems in street cleansing is the illegal disposal of domestic refuse in litter bins on streets, particularly in old residential areas where there are a lot of tenement buildings. Many families are unwilling to hire workmen to collect their domestic refuse. They dispose of their refuse by dumping their refuse into litter bins on the street at night. Such dumping of refuse on the streets will pollute the environment as well as make the general street cleansing work difficult. To tackle this problem, besides strengthening prosecutions, consideration may also be given to some positive measures such as the introduction of a 'contractors for domestic refuse collection recommendation scheme', which contracts out the refuse collection work for all tenement buildings in the entire street to a private contractor. Residents in those buildings will be encouraged to engage the service at their own expense. At the same time, prosecutions of illegal refuse disposal should be stepped up along with the introduction of the contracting-out scheme. Such measures will bring better results.
Also, there are deficiencies in our refuse collection points. At present, we still have 105 temporary refuse collection points, among which 84 occupy street space. In May last year, I made the first suggestion that temporary refuse collection points should be replaced. In reply, the Department proposed to adopt 13 improvement measures and replace 13 temporary refuse collection points within 5 years' time. However, the Democratic Party feels this is still not good enough. First of all, most of the proposed improvement measures are administrative measures only, while some most effective measures such as providing an enclosed environment to prevent leakage of sewage and odour are rarely adopted. Secondly, the replacement of only 13 temporary refuse collection points in 5 years is too slow and is unacceptable. The Department must therefore draw up a schedule for the closure of all temporary refuse collection points. Priority should be given to temporary refuse collection points which are built on street or in close proximity to residential areas, or which are in poor condition. Moreover, modern enclosed type of temporary refuse collection points should be designed and constructed for areas where
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