ENG-1962 — Page 207

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HEALTH

Cleansing and Conservancy. Approximately 4,000 workers were employed in the daily collection and disposal of refuse and street cleansing, using 94 refuse collection vehicles and eight refuse barges. The amount of refuse collected was, by the end of the year, about 1,200 tons a day. Household refuse is collected twice daily in congested areas, elsewhere once daily. All refuse collected in Kowloon is transported by road to a reclamation area at Gin Drinker's Bay for disposal by controlled tipping at the foreshore. Refuse collected on Hong Kong Island is transported by barge to the same dump. Dumping added approximately 78,000 square feet to the reclamation during the year. Streets are swept daily from two to four times depending on locality and congestion. Sixteen street-washing vehicles were employed to wash roads, scavenging lanes, gutters, foot-paths, markets and hawker areas. A conservancy service collected and disposed of nightsoil from 35,000 floors with dry latrines, approximately 1,100 workers, mostly female, with 46 tanker vehicles and three tanker barges being employed. The service is free.

Cemeteries and Crematoria. There are three main public ceme- teries under the direct control and management of the Urban Council, together with a number of private cemeteries. There is also a Government crematorium at Diamond Hill in Kowloon. During the year the construction of a modern crematorium at Cape Collin- son, at the eastern end of Hong Kong Island, was completed and the building brought into service. Private Chinese, Roman Catholic and Muslim cemeteries are being developed in the same area.

The Director of Urban Services acts as local agent for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, on whose behalf he is responsible for the Sai Wan War Cemetery and the Stanley Military Cemetery. The outgoing director of the eastern region of the Com- mission paid a farewell visit in March and his successor visited the Colony in June.

Pest Control. Much of the routine work of the pest control sec- tion of the Urban Services Department consists of control measures against rats, mice, fleas, cockroaches, bed-bugs and biting midges. The section also carries out regular fly control surveys, with in- secticide treatment as necessary, at the Colony's main refuse dump at Gin Drinker's Bay. The work of rodent control is particularly important because examination of fleas found on rats enables a

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