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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

MR. LO TAK-SHING:- Mr. Chairman, while you are considering whether Mrs. ELLIOTT's question is in order or not, I might give you a breather and ask another supplementary. Is the Department studying any more up-to-date methods than people and vans at present used?

CHAIRMAN:- This problem is constantly under review as everyone, I think, knows.

MR. LO TAK-SHING: Which problem is constantly under review, Sir?

CHAIRMAN:- Method of collection and disposal.

MR. LO TAK-SHING:- You mean it is a problem?

CHAIRMAN:- We admit this.

(2) MR. HILTON CHEONG-LEEN asked the following question:-

Does the Resettlement Department have enough staff and the necessary facilities to ensure that the "Keep Hong Kong Clean Campaign" will not lag in November due to a shortage of such staff and facilities?

THE COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT replied as follows:-

I can assure Members that our estates staff will do everything in their power to ensure that the "Keep Hong Kong Clean Campaign" is a success in our resettlement estates. The present number of approved posts of cleansing labourers and supervisors should be sufficient for the task, and our recently arrived Chief Health Inspector, now our principal advisor on cleansing problems in estates, is making an urgent study of the handling and collection systems to ensure that nothing is left undone which should be done to ensure success. We must of course be satisfied on this score before we can reasonably demand 100% co-operation from our tenants.

However, the fact remains that unless those persons who now dump litter in our estates without thought for the well-being of others change their attitudes, it will be difficult for our cleansing force, no matter how large, to produce clean estates. Too many of our tenants have been allowed for too long to believe that they are free to dump as and where they please, it being the department's responsibility (in their distorted vision) to collect and remove whatever they care to dump. So a major factor in success will be education and persuasion and as the member knows, the same community involvement teams and the same system of Anti-Litter Squads will be active in our estates, as elsewhere in the community, to change attitudes and behaviour for the better. And where persuasion fails, our estates staff will help the Anti-Litter Squads which will conduct prosecutions, to identify black spots and persistent offenders.

It is therefore not a simple question of sufficient or insufficient staff but rather a requirement to stop refuse at source by inculcating new attitudes with a new sense of responsibility in our tenants as elsewhere in the community. To put this whole question in perspective, Mr. Chairman, I might add that my department started its "Clean Hong Kong Campaign" over 12 months ago and has since then conducted a massive series of clean-up operations in the estates, and I am glad to say that this has produced significant improvements.

MR. CHEONG-LEEN:- Mr. Chairman, are there any refuse dumps or junk piles in some of the estates which, to the Commissioner's knowledge, are not being cleaned daily at the request of the Urban Services Department or either through insufficient resources of the Resettlement Department itself?

COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:- I have had no such complaints, Mr. Chairman, except that once in a while, I think, there has been the odd mechanical breakdown in U.S.D. vehicles which has affected the time scheduled for collection. So once in a while, for that reason, there has been a failure to pick up at the due time with the result that rubbish is left lying there overnight, but I may assure Members that when that happens my staff complains loud and long.

MR. CHEONG-LEEN:- Mr. Chairman, the situation has been made very clear to me too on visits in the last few months to resettlement estates. Now, is the Commissioner fairly satisfied, very satisfied shall I say, that there are no more refuse dumps or junk piles in any resettlement estates under his control which are not cleared daily?

COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:- I think, Mr. Chairman, this is really departing from the original sense of the question. I cannot say any more than this.

MR. CHEONG-LEEN: Is the Commissioner afraid to answer that question?

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