In the rural areas and in certain outlying parts of the Urban Council Area, uncovered pig pits are used for receiving human excreta. Flies and mal-odours are the inevitable accompaniments.
The collection and removal of nightsoil is controlled by conservancy by-laws made under the Public Health (Sanitation) Ordinance, No. 15 of 1935.
(b) Refuse disposal.
Refuse is collected from dustbins by the Sanitary Department of the Urban Council. The service is a twice daily one in the urban districts of Hong Kong and Kowloon and once daily in the Peak and outskirts of the purely urban areas. An appreciable proportion of the four hundred and eighty-four tons collected daily is carried in open baskets through the streets by women coolies who perform the service in return for being allowed to make use of remnants of food, etc., for pig wash. This private scavenging system possesses obvious drawbacks, especially during the summer months, since each coolie is accompanied by a cloud of flies some of which may detach themselves and enter premises along the route.
About three-quarters of the refuse is collected into covered Sanitary Department motor lorries of which twelve function in Hong Kong with about half that number in Kowloon. Household waste from these and that carried in open baskets is tipped into barges or dust boats, five of which are stationed at various parts of the sea front in Hong Kong and four in Kowloon.
The dust boats lie alongside for several hours each day and are a prolific source of flies during the summer months.
They are taken by tugs, except when equipped with their own power, to a refuse disposal area established in the shallow waters of Kowloon Bay at Kun Tong. A considerable amount of land has already been formed in this way and should be valuable after consolidation for building purposes. The refuse is top-dressed with a foot or more of dredged sand and mud from the approaches to Hong Kong harbour. Once the filling area is reduced to reasonable proportions, the fly nuisance at this dump should be very considerably lessened.
Spraying of insecticide is carried out on the dust boats before they return to their urban stations, but this is only partially effective and it is usual for many flies to be transported back. This nuisance has been lessened in some degree since coolies working on the dust boats were forbidden to comb the refuse for rags, etc., and to take these back in the boats returning from the disposal area. A second refuse dump is maintained in swampy land near Aberdeen on Hong Kong Island.