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The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) will tomorrow (January 15) begin a three-week major clean-up campaign across the territory to ring in the Year of the Rat.
¡§It is our tradition to have a clean-up before the Lunar New Year. So it is time for everyone to act now to improve the cleanliness of our living environment,¡¨ an FEHD spokesman said.
During the campaign period, the department will thoroughly clean streets, public toilets and bathhouses, public places and hygiene blackspots such as back lanes. Common parts of old tenement buildings also will be inspected.
¡§We will extend the opening hours of refuse collection points where necessary and provide temporary junk collection points for people to dispose of large pieces of household waste.
¡§We will issue statutory notices to require residents or owners to remove accumulated refuse or to abate other environmental nuisances if the situation warrants.
¡§To ensure cleanliness of public places, we will strengthen enforcement actions and adopt a stringent approach to offences under the Fixed Penalty (Public Cleanliness Offences) Ordinance, including littering, spitting, illegal posting of bills or posters, improper feeding of pigeons and other feral birds and dog fouling,¡¨ the spokesman said.
The operation will also cover public markets, cooked food centres and hawker-concentrated areas.
¡§Stallholders will be encouraged to clean up their stalls. We will carry out stringent enforcement actions against any malpractices,¡¨ the spokesman said.
The department will continue its intensive mosquito and rodent control measures and carry out special inspections of common parts of tenement buildings, village houses and private housing estates; cargo and passenger terminuses; schools; construction/vacant sites and illegal cultivated sites.
To tie in with the department¡¦s clean-up efforts, District Councils will organise a series of promotional activities to solicit local community support in the exercise.
¡§We call on the public to join us. It¡¦s only through concerted efforts that we can enjoy a cleaner environment in the Year of the Rat,¡¨ the spokesman said.
Ends/Monday, January 14, 2008
Issued at HKT 15:56
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