ENG-1960 — Page 185

148

HEALTH

Cleansing and Conservancy. About 4,500 persons were employed on the daily collection and disposal of refuse and on street cleansing. They use 86 specialized refuse-collecting vehicles, 14 street-washing vehicles, 2 combined cesspit-emptiers and washing vehicles, and 22 dumb barges specially constructed for the trans- port of bulk refuse. A day and night street-washing service cleaned roads, lanes, side channels, footpaths, market and hawker areas, flushed street gully traps and laid dust round building sites and reclamation.

The daily average amount of refuse collected rose from approxi- mately 2,400 cubic yards in 1959 to about 3,040 cubic yards in 1960, i.e. roughly 900 tons a day. The bulk came from Kowloon which has a larger population than Hong Kong Island. Disposal is by controlled tipping on the area of foreshore which is being reclaimed at Gin Drinker's Bay in the New Territories, five miles west of the urban area of Kowloon. The area of land reclaimed during the year was approximately 131,000 square feet.

Only about one quarter of the buildings in the urban area have water-borne sanitation, and the conservancy section collects and disposes of nightsoil from over 40,600 floors with dry latrines. This section employs a staff of about 1,400 male and female_workers, working at night with six specially designed dumb barges, and 36 special motor vehicles. More than 6,900 cubic yards of nightsoil were collected. Most was delivered by barge to the Tsuen Wan Maturation Station from where, once it is safe, the Vegetable Marketing Organization takes it to New Territories farmers as fertilizer.

Cemeteries and Crematoria. There are three main public cemeteries under the direct control and management of the Urban Council, as well as over a dozen private cemeteries managed by private bodies. There is also a Government crematorium at Diamond Hill in Kowloon. Plans have been prepared for a new modern crematorium at Cape Collinson, on the eastern end of Hong Kong Island, to reduce pressure on the dwindling amount of burial space available. A similar crematorium will also be built in Kowloon to replace Diamond Hill.

The Director of Urban Services manages the Sai Wan Bay War Cemetery and the Stanley Military Cemetery as local agent for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.