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The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Donald Tsang, has today (May 28) unveiled Team Clean's comprehensive strategy to boost environmental hygiene and cleanliness in Hong Kong.
Short-term measures to be taken over the next three to six months will brighten up the city through a major cleanup of streets and roads, hawkers centres and markets, private and public housing estates and rear lanes and private roads.
A 'zero tolerance' and stricter enforcement action will be taken against spitting and littering offences, illegal cooked food hawkers, filthy rear lanes and private roads, unhygienic market stalls, unclean toilets and dirty pavements in front of shops.
A longer-term strategy aims to engender sustained community involvement in maintaining a clean and healthy environment, coupled with stricter enforcement action and new approaches to long-standing public hygiene problems.
Mr Tsang stressed that any efforts to keep Hong Kong clean in the long term would depend on the individual resolve of everyone in Hong Kong.
"Team Clean does not and cannot work alone," he said.
"Members of the community are the true owners of all the initiatives we have devised. Every member of the community is a member of Team Clean.
"We can only achieve our goals for a cleaner, more hygienic Hong Kong if we all play our part."
Mr Tsang said all efforts to improve Hong Kong's living environment must begin with the individual, extend to the family and the immediate neighbourhood, and then radiate throughout the entire community.
Accordingly, Team Clean's work plan had been structured in a hierarchy of personal hygiene, home hygiene, and community hygiene.
"A comprehensive strategy has been developed to help bring about a sea change in the way that Hong Kong people regard their living environment," he said.
"This will be achieved by promoting individual and community-wide involvement and ownership of cleanliness and hygiene efforts, increased civic education and tougher enforcement action for breaches of food, hygiene and cleanliness regulations.
"A broad range of measures - including pilot schemes - will be taken over the next three to six months (Phase I) to achieve quick and visible improvements in the living environment.
"Longer-term measures (Phase II), which could include new or amended laws, will be developed on the basis of experiences gained during Phase I."
Mr Tsang said Team Clean recognised the need for a new mindset within Government and the community to develop innovative and sustainable systems that break new ground, and break down barriers, to tackle long-standing health and hygiene problems.
The district administration system will play a key and pro-active role in monitoring local conditions and devising new initiatives to engender a sense of individual responsibility and collective community pride in environmental hygiene.
The management of housing blocks - both private and public - has received special attention to put systems in place that will ensure common areas and facilities are well-maintained and that drainage systems are inspected regularly and, if faulty, repaired quickly.
Owners unwilling to maintain their buildings properly, will be billed by the Government for any rectification measures that need to be taken.
Greater attention will also be paid to hygiene in restaurants, markets and cooked food stalls, with an immediate crackdown on illegal food hawking and stricter enforcement of food and hygiene regulations in markets and bazaars.
Phase I measures to be taken over the next three to six months include:
Personal Hygiene
* 'Zero tolerance' and strict enforcement of spitting and littering offences; fixed penalty for spitting and littering to increase from $600 to $1,500.
* Enhanced public education on hygiene standards for new immigrants, domestic helpers, tourists and members of the public.
Home Hygiene
* Inspection of external drainpipes in private buildings from May to July. Repair orders issued for defective pipes.
* Inspection of external drainpipes in public housing estates from June to August, with half-yearly inspections thereafter.
* Cleansing of common areas of more than 800 old, unhygienic private buildings from now until December.
* Collection of domestic bagged refuse in old districts from June to December.
* Cleansing of more than 250 hygiene blackspots in 99 public housing estates from now to August.
* Clearing of excessive rubbish, and enhanced rubbish collection services, in public housing estates.
* Quarterly cleansing operations in public housing estates from May.
* Launch of 'Public Housing Estate Cleanliness Incentive Scheme' and 'Estate Commercial Premises Cleanliness Scheme' in June.
* Establishment of a 24-hour hotline to allow public housing estate residents to report hygiene blackspots and drainage defects.
* Increased enforcement action, coupled with streamlined procedures, against dripping air conditioners.
* Stringent action against illegal cooked food hawkers in public housing estates from June.
Community Hygiene
* Cleansing of private rear lanes and streets by the government. Costs to be recovered by the government for subsequent cleansing operations if owners cannot maintain proper hygiene standards.
* Launching of six pilot projects to develop a system for inter-departmental co-operation for cleaning district hygiene blackspots.
* Strengthened enforcement action against the dirtying of rear lanes and other filthy private areas.
* Rectification work on faulty sewer connections at Kai Tak Nullah.
* Stepped up efforts to prevent dengue fever by eliminating mosquito breeding sites in or at housing estates, commercial premises, construction sites, hiking trails, recreation venues and drainage ditches.
* Institutionalise the current system for monitoring dengue fever threat during the mosquito breeding season.
* Stringent enforcement of food and hygiene laws at markets and cooked food centres.
* Promulgate guidelines on handling of food at food stalls and cooked food centres.
* Intensive cleaning by the government of common areas at cooked food centres from July to December.
* Stepped up enforcement of food and hygiene laws at restaurants, with particular attention paid to cleanliness, food preparation, delivery and display, and toilet hygiene.
* Stricter enforcement of laws requiring shop owners/tenants to keep pavements clean.
* Add a 'shine' to the city through a major cleanup of roads and streets, hawker areas, street furniture; more regular repainting of footbridges and flyovers, road markings; replacement of old, dirty or withered roadside greenery; improve landscapes at amenity areas and leisure venues.
Longer-term measures in Phase II will include:
Personal
* Consider harsher laws (e.g. community service orders, criminal record) and eviction from public housing for repeated breaches of hygiene laws.
* Erecting a monument to commemorate SARS victims, as well as those who die in the service of others.
* Hygiene and civic education courses to become an integral part of the school curriculum.
* Sustain efforts to raise awareness of hygiene laws and regulations among new immigrants, domestic helpers and members of the public.
Home Hygiene
* Review the Buildings Ordinance to improve drainage system design.
* Consider 'cost recovery' measures for government repairs to private drains or pipes.
* Inspection, and repair if necessary, of internal pipes in public housing estates.
* Consider suggestions for mandatory management of domestic buildings.
* Amend laws to facilitate rectification of air conditioner dripping nuisance.
* Ongoing raids against illegal cooked food hawkers in public housing estates.
* Pursue with professional institutes ways to improve urban and building design.
Community Hygiene
* Joint efforts with NGOs to help owners/residents keep rear lanes and private streets clean.
* Form district hygiene squads to monitor hygiene conditions of rear lanes and private streets.
* Amend laws to increase penalties for despoiling rear lanes and private areas.
* Require thorough cleansing of market stalls on a monthly basis.
* Consider banning live poultry to tackle the root of the Avian Flu problem.
* Consider publishing the names of restaurants with unhygienic kitchens and toilets.
* Encourage restaurant owners to refurbish toilets and consider making hygienic toilets a critical factor in renewal of licences.
* Secure public transport operators' support to keep their vehicles clean and tidy.
* Designate a day in the end of each month as an 'Intensive Cleanup Day'. Designated rubbish points would be set up to allow residents to dispose of rubbish and disused articles.
* Encourage District Offices and NGOs to mobilise volunteers to launch regular cleansing programmes in specific areas.
For more details on the report visit the Team Clean website at: www.teamclean.gov.hk.
End/Wednesday, May 28, 2003
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