CE visits Food and Environmental Hygiene Department
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    The Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, today (August 23) saw the latest developments concerning hawking control and the provision of cremation, columbarium and public toilet services, during a visit to several facilities managed by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department.

     Accompanied by the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene, Mr Eddy Chan, the Chief Executive began his visit at the Wong Tai Sin District Environmental Hygiene Office where he met directorate officers and members of the Hawker Control Team (HCT).

     He chatted with control team members about their work in tackling illegal hawking and shop extension and enforcing anti-litter legislation.

     He also learnt of the improvement measures being taken by the department to enhance control of hawking activities, particularly the introduction of a mandatory training course for all team members to further enhance skills in handling crises and incidents.

     "It is not an easy task to control hawking activities but the department's frontline staff have been working very hard to serve the public," Mr Tsang said.

     The Chief Executive also toured the Diamond Hill Crematorium and noted the strong demand for cremation services, which had risen steadily in the last 30 years - from 7,300 cremations in 1975 to 33,000 cremations last year.

     Mr Tsang learnt that a project to reprovision the crematorium with six new cremators and a full range of ancillary facilities, such as service halls and gardens of remembrance, was actively under way for completion in 2007.

     In addition, he noted that reprovision work was also planned for cremators at Wo Hop Shek and Cape Collinson Crematorium.

     Mr Tsang noted that the new facilities were designed in strict compliance with environmental standards and statutory requirements and would provide more efficient cremation service.

     He was told that the department had been working hard to meet the ever-increasing demand for niches, noting that nearly 11,000 new niches were being built in columbaria at Cape Collinson, Kwai Chung, Wo Hop Shek and Cheung Chau in 2006 and 2007.

     In the longer term, Mr Tsang noted that the department was planning to build more niches at some existing columbarium sites and a new site at Tuen Mun Area 46 to cope with public demand.

     "I know that the department has been conducting consultations on the new facilities. I call on the community and the District Councils to give their support to these projects."

     Before visiting the crematorium, Mr Tsang also inspected the Hong Keung Street Public Toilet in San Po Kong, where refurbishment works were carried out in early 2003.

     The Chief Executive noted that modern design features, including automatic infra-red sensor type water tap and better ventilation and odour control, were adopted for newly constructed and refurbished public toilets.

Ends/Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:50

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