XN000022-1972-05-14 — Page 4

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Sunday, May 14, 1972

EXPANSION OF HARBOUR CLEANSING FLEET

For Better Refuse Collection

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The Marine Department is to expand the existing harbour cleansing

fleet in order to provide better refuse collection services in typhoon

shelters and in the harbour.

The department will provide a boat-to-boat refuse collection service

within the Yau Ma Tei and Causeway Bay Typhoon shelters, a general scavenging

service within the port of Aberdeen, and a free ship-to-ship refuse collection

service in the harbour for a trial period of six months.

A department spokesman said the existing harbour cleansing service

for the whole of Victoria Harbour came into operation in October 1964, and

is provided by a fleet of four mechanised cargo boats and 12 sampans.

In typhoon shelters, he said, refuse dumping by boat people

constitutes a source of harbour pollution affecting not only the shelters

but, because of the action of wind and tides, also the entire Victoria

harbour area.

"The only feasible method of inducing the boat people to dispose

of their refuse in a hygienic manner is the introduction of a boat-to-boat

refuse collection service," he said.

The collection sampans will be stationed permanently in the shelters

and will operate to a fixed schedule. At lease five sampans, each with a

crew of three men, will be required to provide the service at Yau Ma Tei and

Causeway Bay typhoon shelters.

/For the