Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1967-1968 — Page 48

overcrowded families. The combined quota for the year was raised from 17,000 to 30,000 new places (that is excluding the old rooms liberated by families moving out under the scheme), and altogether 42,282 people moved into other rooms under the direct or indirect decantation schemes. (The figure of 28,951 quoted in paragraph 56 refers to the number of people reaccommodated in estates other than their original one). The worst overcrowding is naturally found in the older estates where rooms rarely fall vacant and where many families who have even less than 16 square feet an adult refuse offers of larger rooms in the new estates. They prefer to tolerate discomfort rather than be cut off from their friends or change their place of work and the schools which their children attend. Nevertheless, the situation will be improved when the new Pak Tin estate becomes ready for occupation in March 1969 since it is close to the three oldest estates, Shek Kip Mei, Tai Hang Tung and Lei Cheng Uk.

107. The cleansing of the public parts of domestic blocks, courtyards and open ground, surface drains and banks has always been a heavy task for the labour force particularly in the old Mark I and II estates. The design of these blocks is not conducive to the orderly disposal of rubbish, and although sanitation companies will contract to remove and empty individual tenants' dustbins for a very small fee, many tenants neither employ them nor are willing to carry their own rubbish down several flights of stairs to the refuse collection points. The open-sided balconies, on the other hand, are a constant temptation to throw waste paper and refuse over the side, to be swept up by the department's sanitation labourers. During the year some improvement was noted in three of the old estates where a free door-to-door collection service was introduced as an experiment, and this is being extended. The problem is not as serious in the Mark III and IV estates where there are refuse chutes with openings on every floor, and where the wire grilles which tenants install on their private balconies discourage the anti-social habits prevalent in the older estates. During 1965-66 the department tried the experiment of letting out the cleansing of Lo Fu Ngam and Sau Mau Ping to contract. It was hoped that this would improve sanitary conditions and reduce the cost of cleansing. The experiment was a failure and the contract was terminated after 12 days. However, in March 1967 a second contract was let for cleansing a new Mark IV estate at Shek Pai Wan, and the service there continues to be satisfactory and economical. Contract cleansing was therefore extended to three new

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