ENG-1990 — Page 208

HEALTH

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A regular workforce of about 8 858 is employed in cleansing duties, employing a fleet of 555 specialised vehicles which include refuse collection vehicles, street washers, mechanical sweepers, nightsoil collectors and gully emptiers.

Streets are swept, either manually or mechanically, from four to eight times a day for busy thoroughfares to once every second day for village lanes. Streets and lanes are also hosed down where local conditions warrant. Hawker areas and refuse collection points are washed regularly.

About 4 724 tonnes of refuse and junk are collected daily, including 75 tonnes removed by a contractual barging service from outlying islands for disposal at sites on the mainland. Since May 1990, the Regional Council has introduced a daily junk collection service to public housing estates. A nightsoil collection service is also provided daily in those areas without a water-borne sewage and disposal system. These services are free.

Following a comprehensive review conducted during the year, the Regional Council will upgrade its 734 refuse collection points and 1 235 bin sites. Metal-sheet and wooden enclosures will be replaced with fibreglass structures, while sites which abut trunk roads or cause nuisance will be upgraded into permanent village-type refuse collection points. Meanwhile, more attractive rectangular-shaped rubbish bins have been replacing the cylindrical metal ones at refuse collection points, in government buildings and in housing developments.

The two departments are continuing to contract-out selective cleansing services to private contractors to reduce the involvement of direct departmental labour and to enhance cost-effectiveness. In the urban area, contracts cover more than 280 public toilets and bathhouses, two squatter villages and six cargo-working areas. In the New Territories, cleansing services have been contracted-out for some years in Luen Wo Hui and Shek Wu Hui in North District. Contracts have also been awarded for village cleansing in Ap Chau in Sha Tau Kok and Tai Long Wan Tsuen on Lantau. The performance of private contractors has been found to be highly satisfactory and contracting-out will be extended to other suitable localities in the future.

During the year, the Keep Hong Kong Clean campaign, co-ordinated by a joint Urban Council-Regional Council Steering Committee, launched a seven-phase clean-up programme. This covered the environment, water, roads, schools, homes, squatter areas and villages, as well as the countryside. The campaign focused on community involvement, education and publicity through television and posters. Special emphasis was placed on penalising litter offenders, since enforcement of the law remained a major weapon against litterbugs, with 45 292 people being fined a total of $11.8 million for littering offences during the year.

To further involve the community in the campaign, the two councils engaged a public relations firm and an advertising agency to generate new ideas for a campaign strategy. A positive role model, the Dragon of Cleanliness, was introduced.

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign since its start in 1972, the Steering Committee also appointed a research company to survey and analyse public awareness. The findings will be used to formulate future campaign strategies.

Controls

To maintain and improve standards of hygiene, staff of the two departments serving the municipal councils regularly inspect licensed and permitted premises, common parts of