CO129-618-1 Institute of Medical Research- proposed construction 21-4-1947 - 5-12-1947 — Page 20

Appendix

B1 & B2.

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hygienio design as a means of meeting the great dearth of housing accommodation over, say, a period of ten years and until funds and staff are available for major schemes. We wish to emphasise the point that a wonderful opportunity exists for making the Colony into a really model township which can serve as an example for all time of Sino-British achievement.

(2) Immigration and Disinfection Station.

In pre-war days, immigrants and third class and deck passengers from infected ships were landed at Yaumati and went through a process of disinfection and disinfestation in the S. S. "Aldecoa", an old hulk. This hulk was destroyed during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong and there is no satisfactory means of treating persons from infected ships at the present time. This is a lack which should be made good with the least possible delay in the interests of disease prevention. A site for the station was selected in 1940 close to the crematorium.

(3) Mortuary and Crematorium,

We are aware that the existing mortuary at the junction of Waterloo and Nathan Roads is a source of constant com- plaint from householders in the vicinity and is quite inadequate for the needs of the Peninsula.

A site in Tai Kok Tsui was selected before the outbreak of the Pacific War for a modern type of mortuary combined with a crematorium for unclaimed, dumped bodies (death being due to cholera, smallpox or other dangerous infectious disease). Cremation is the most satisfactory method of dealing with such bodies of which there are several thousand every year.

(4) Sewerage. (a)

We have good reason to believe that about one hundred tons of nightsoil are collected daily from buildings in the urban area which do not possess a water-carriage system. At the present time, only one fifth of this valuable fertilizer is taken by sewage barge to the battery of maturing tanks at Castle Peak. Some of the remainder is used surreptiously in its raw state, a menace to health in view of the prevalence of cholera, dysentery and typhoid, while the bulk is dumped at sea. A modernized sowerage system in both Hong Kong and Kowloon demands early priority in any public health programme, For several years past such needed improvements in Kowloon have been delayed owing to an absence of any agreement in regard to the development of the port, the siting of the railway and harbour of refuge, and so on. We considered two communications on sewage disposal by Wing Commander S.E. Faber, and commend these interesting outlines for exploration by Government. The question naturally arises as to the advisability of inviting an expert on sewage disposal to visit Hong Kong and to prepare a soheme and esti- mateof capital and recurrent costs, set off by the sale of fertilizer.

(4) Refuse Disposal. (16)

We are informed that approximately 350 tons of domestic and trade refuse are collected in the urban area daily and that the bulk of this is removed by dustboats to the Kun Tong Dump on the north side of the harbour in the region of Lyeemuun.

Three possible methods of disposal of this increasing amount of waste are available, either to continue dumping to reclaim land from the sea or to combine dumping with composting with a proportion of nightsoil on the Indore plan, or thirdly, to incinerate the refuse. We are of the opinion that a combination of all three is best suited to the needs of the Colony.

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