ENG-1967 — Page 159

HEALTH

115

Services Department. In the New Territories, the Director of Urban Services is responsible.

More than 6,000 employees of the Urban Services Department are engaged in street cleansing and the removal of refuse and night- soil. Over 1,800 tons of refuse a day are collected. About 500 tons a day of refuse from Hong Kong Island is disposed of in the new oil-fired incinerator at Kennedy Town. The balance is transported by barge from Hong Kong Island and by lorry from the mainland for disposal by controlled tipping. A second incinerator is expected to come into use in 1968 in Lai Chi Kok, in Kowloon, with the aim of eliminating controlled tipping.

Further experiments in the mechanization of cleansing services were undertaken, including a small power-suction vehicle for beat sweeping, and two electric trucks for carrying street refuse to collection points. Some 129 refuse collection vehicles were in use daily, supplemented by 26 tractors and 72 trailers; in addition, 29 street-washing vehicles were employed to clean roads, scavenging lanes, gutters, footpaths and hawker areas.

The change in social and living conditions over the past six years has resulted in a switch from wood-burning stoves in houses, tene- ments and restaurants, to the use of kerosene, liquified petroleum gas and town gas. This in its turn has resulted in an accumulation of junk formerly burned as fuel. In consequence, three refuse collection vehicles, nine lorries and four tippers, working on a double-shift basis, were employed to remove a daily average of 114 lorry-loads of boxes, crates and other household junk for disposal at incineration points in Kowloon and Hong Kong.

The conservancy services continue to diminish as pre-war property is demolished and replaced by modern buildings with waterborne sanitation. Nevertheless, 114 cubic yards of nightsoil were collected daily from 19,255 floors with dry latrines, and from 2,237 temporary latrine compartments on building sites, squatter and re-site areas. 36 vehicles and three tanker-barges were employed on this service.

An important task of the Urban Services Department is the regular inspection of some 8,270 licensed premises such as restau- rants, fresh provision shops and food factories. All new applications for licences for food premises, laundries, offensive trades, commercial

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