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DR. BELL:-I take it then the answer is really that although you have 7 Health Officers for the urban district, in fact, you have 12 for the whole of the Colony? Mr. Chairman, one other question. Is there any lack of doctors in other sections of the Medical Services to which these doctors employed in the Health Services could perhaps be transferred and put to more urgent use?
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES: —No, Mr. Chairman. There are actually 607 posts for doctors in the Medical and Health Department, and only 7 of them work as Health Officers in the urban area. It is really a very low proportion. We have, for example, 20 doctors doing nothing but casualty all day long. Health work is not popular; it is not as glamorous as the treatment of disease; preventive medicine never has been popular. You don't separate Siamese twins and that sort of thing doing preventive medicine. I do not think there is any reason to suppose that one could make better use of these doctors anywhere else.
MR. BERNACCHI:-Mr. Chairman, indeed I am distressed to see that the figure in the urban areas is 1 per every 400,000 persons, and presumably that is an average, so that in some districts it may even be more. Do you think that we have enough Health Officers to cope with our statutory duties under the Public Health and Urban Services Ordinance?
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES:-It is rather a difficult question, Mr. Chairman. There is no establishment laid down for Health Officers in urban areas, but I certainly think we could do with more.
(3) MRS. E. ELLIOTT asked the following question:
What steps have so far been taken towards the supplying of water to the villages in Tai Ping and other villages just east of Choi Hung?
THE COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT replied as follows:-
Mrs. ELLIOTT asked a similar question at the meeting of this Council on 22nd December, 1966, when I indicated that the position was being re-examined by the Water Authority. Since then, two additional taps have been installed to supplement the existing supply in Fei Po Hang Village which are also used by people living in Tai Ping Village. On the 22nd December I said that there was no well in the area. This was incorrect. I should have said that, at that time, there was no productive well in Tai Ping Village. Since the weekend's rain, 21 wells are in use, of which 3 are in Fei Po Hang Village, 15 in Tai Ping Village and 3 in the village near Clearwater Bay Road. There is also an abundant supply from streams on the other side of Clearwater Bay Road which the villagers have been tapping for some years.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, I am rather dismayed by this answer, because I think Mr. BARTY must have known that I was referring to the hill top and that the taps down below are not very useful. The first time, Mr. Chairman, I was told that the operation of taking water up the hill was too expensive. The second time I was told there was insufficient pressure, both of which do not seem to be very valid arguments. Am I to take it now that the definite answer is "no, they are not going to get water"?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: That is the position at the moment, Mr. Chairman. It has been estimated that to get water onto the higher ridges would cost about $115,000 and Government at present is not proposing to undertake this expenditure.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, am I allowed to ask why it would cost so much, because the argument about the pressure does not seem valid. I have myself, with my own eyes, seen them take water up in a rubber tube which suggests that the pressure is sufficient.
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-I am informed, Mr. Chairman, by the Waterworks Office that the only way to get water there is by an extension from the water supply already installed at the Jordan Valley resite area, and that that supply itself would need to be improved so as to ensure that the Jordan Valley residents' supply was not affected by increasing the number of people dependent upon it.
DR. BELL:-Mr. Chairman, could I ask a supplementary? How many people are involved in this question? How many people are living at the top of these hills in these villages not getting water?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-There are really four villages involved, Mr. Chairman. My Department's estimate is that there are about 2,100 people in Fei Po Hang Village which is situated in a valley running up from the Kwun Tong Road. Tai Ping Village, which is partly on the top of a ridge and also running down the face of that hillside as you look towards Clearwater Bay Road, has about 1,000 people. Clearwater Bay Road village has about 460 people, and then there is a Ping Shan village, which is on another small ridge behind and to the south of Tai Ping village, where there are 850 people. That makes a total of something over 4,300.
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DR. BELL:-I take it then the answer is really that although you have 7 Health Officers for the urban district, in fact, you have 12 for the whole of the Colony? Mr. Chairman, one other question. Is there any lack of doctors in other sections of the Medical Services to which these doctors employed in the Health Services could perhaps be transferred and put to more urgent use?
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES: —No, Mr. Chairman. There are actually 607 posts for doctors in the Medical and Health Department, and only 7 of them work as Health Officers in the urban area. It is really a very low proportion. We have, for example, 20 doctors doing nothing but casualty all day long. Health work is not popular; it is not as glamorous as the treatment of disease; preventive medicine never has been popular. You don't separate Siamese twins and that sort of thing doing preventive medicine. I do not think there is any reason to suppose that one could make better use of these doctors anywhere else.
MR. BERNACCHI:-Mr. Chairman, indeed I am distressed to see that the figure in the urban areas is 1 per every 400,000 persons, and presumably that is an average, so that in some districts it may even be more. Do you think that we have enough Health Officers to cope with our statutory duties under the Public Health and Urban Services Ordinance?
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES:-It is rather a difficult question Mr. Chairman. There is no establishment laid down for Health Officers in urban areas, but I certainly think we could do with more.
(3) MRS. E. ELLIOTT asked the following question:
What steps have so far been taken towards the supplying of water to the villages in Tai Ping and other villages just east of Choi Hung?
THE COMMISSIONER FOR RESEttlement replied as follows:-
Mrs. ELLIOTT asked a similar question at the meeting of this Council on 22nd December, 1966, when I indicated that the position was being re-examined by the Water Authority. Since then, two additional taps have been installed to supplement the existing supply in Fei Po Hang Village which are also used by people living in Tai Ping Village. On the 22nd December I said that there was no well in the area. This was incorrect. I should have said that, at that time, there was no pro-
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
ductive well in Tai Ping Village. Since the weekend's rain, 21 wells are in use of which 3 are in Fei Po Hang Village, 15 in Tai Ping Village and 3 in the village near Clearwater Bay Road. There is also an abundant supply from streams on the other side of Clearwater Bay Road which the villagers have been tapping for some years.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, I am rather dismayed by this answer, because I think Mr. BARTY must have known that I was re- ferring to the hill top and that the taps down below are not very useful. The first time, Mr. Chairman, I was told that the operation of taking water up the hill was too expensive. The second time I was told there was insufficient pressure, both of which do not seem to be very valid arguments. Am I to take it now that the definite answer is "no, they are not going to get water"?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: That is the position at the moment, Mr. Chairman. It has been estimated that to get water onto the higher ridges would cost about $115,000 and Government at present is not proposing to undertake this expenditure.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, am I allowed to ask why it would cost so much, because the argument about the pressure does not seem valid. I have myself, with my own eyes, seen them take water up in a rubber tube which suggests that the pressure is sufficient.
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-I am informed, Mr. Chair- man, by the Waterworks Office that the only way to get water there is by an extension from the water supply already installed at the Jordan Valley resite area, and that that supply itself would need to be improved so as to ensure that the Jordan Valley residents' supply was not affected by increasing the number of people dependent upon it.
DR. BELL:-Mr. Chairman, could I ask a supplementary? How many people are involved in this question? How many people are living at the top of these hills in these villages not getting water?
COMMISSIONER for ResettleMENT:-There are really four villages involved, Mr. Chairman. My Department's estimate is that there are about 2,100 people in Fei Po Hang Village which is situated in a valley running up from the Kwun Tong Road. Tai Ping Village, which is partly on the top of a ridge and also running down the face of that hillside as you look towards Clearwater Bay Road, has about a 1,000 people. Clearwater Bay Road village has about 460 people, and then there is a Ping Shan village, which is on another small ridge behind and to the south of Tai Ping village, where there are 850 people. That makes a total of something over 4,300.
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