ENG-1964 — Page 138

HEALTH

113

in the health problems of their respective districts. The associations again combined to organize a Health Education Exhibition in July in which major health problems were emphasized.

An annual event is the oratorical and song contest among school children, planned jointly by the Urban Council and the Junior Chamber of Commerce. The theme this year was smoking. Food hygiene courses for restaurant and hotel staff have been widened in scope.

The supervision of slaughterhouses and shops and markets selling fresh food provides another means of controlling health conditions. It is hoped that the difficulty of maintaining high standards in the present old and inadequate slaughterhouses will be relieved by the two new buildings on which work is soon to begin. In the sale of fresh meat fish and poultry to the housewife market stall-holders appear to be meeting increased competition from fresh provision shops. One result is that about three per cent of the stalls in public markets were vacant at the end of the year and the future construction programme is being reconsidered in the light of this and other developments.

Street hawking is a feature of Hong Kong in which as many as 100,000 people may be engaged full or part-time. It can also be a health problem as well causing congestion and obstruction in narrow streets. Measures to meet these problems are enforced by the Hawker Control Force which was established in 1960 and now has an establishment of 385. In the interests of health the sale of fresh meat or fish by street hawkers is prohibited. The great majority of hawkers sell vegetables and are concentrated in certain areas, often around markets or new fresh provision shops. In some of these streets the congestion can be very serious, hindering cleansing operations as well as obstructing pedestrians and traffic. Occasionally the only relief may be by moving hawker sites entirely to more suitable streets. In dealing with these problems the Hawker Control Force endeavours to achieve results by education and persuasion with legal action as a last resort.

Street cleaning and refuse collecting is a major task, made more difficult during the year by typhoons and staff shortages. About 1,400 tons of refuse are collected every day and dumped in a reclama- tion at Gin Drinker's Bay in the New Territories. Work has now begun on one of two new incinerators which will eventually replace