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Government hopes to work with District Councils to keep Hong Kong clean

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The Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, today (February 1) met with the Chairmen and Vice-chairmen of the new term of the environmental hygiene committees of the District Councils to seek their views and opinions for the purpose of consolidating the achievements made in various districts during the "Keep Clean 2015@ Hong Kong: Our Home" campaign last year and upholding the cleanliness of Hong Kong's environment.

"Keeping the environment clean, which can effectively prevent the spread of communicable diseases, is an important means to protect public health. Therefore, relevant departments of the Government have been attaching great importance to this aspect of our work, hoping to use resources more efficiently when sprucing up our cleansing efforts," Dr Ko said.

While recognising the efforts made by the Government departments to keep the environment clean, the Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of the environmental hygiene committees believed that there is still room for improvement. They have also reflected to the Government issues of concern to them, including marine refuse, discrepancies in the performance of cleansing contractors, dog fouling, mosquitoes and rodent control, fly-tipping of construction waste, blocked drains, hygiene condition of restaurants' back lanes, unauthorised shop-front extension, obstruction caused by hawking activities and the maintenance of public markets. They have made various suggestions to the Government including strengthening law enforcement, enhancing the frequency of cleansing operations, and the installation of closed-circuit video surveillance system at hygiene blackspots.

In his concluding remarks, Dr Ko made reference to some of the key measures that would be rolled out on the environmental hygiene front in the coming year. They include stepping up the efforts of mosquito prevention and control work in response to emerging challenges, increasing the number of street washing vehicles and frequency of street washing services, strengthening manpower to monitor the performance of cleansing contractors, increasing the frequency of operations to clean up marine refuse blackspots, marine parks and public beaches, enhancing inspections of Government land, blackspots of illegal farming and skip placing, strengthening the cleaning of drainage and sewerage systems, as well as actions to combat fly-tipping involving construction waste on a more vigorous basis.

As mosquitoes are the vector of a number of infectious diseases, including Zika virus which has aroused wide public concern recently, various Government departments will intensify their mosquito control work. As a matter of fact, in response to the serious public health threats posed by the high incidence of Dengue Fever cases occurring in neighbouring areas across the region, mosquito prevention and control measures had been stepped up in the 18 districts continuously in the past two years. The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department has increased the number of contractual pest control roving teams in winter (from December 2015 to March 2016) to strengthen the work in this aspect.

Dr Ko said that the Government will carefully consider the views and suggestions raised at the meeting, and will continue to review the effectiveness of various environmental hygiene measures in the interest of making timely adjustment. He also promised to follow up with the Home Affairs Department as well as relevant bureaux and departments on coordination of their efforts in keeping the environment clean. He appeals to members of the public for lending support to the work of the Government through exercising civic-mindedness and self-discipline, so as to keep Hong Kong clean and reduce the spread of diseases.

The Government has put in place a regular meeting mechanism with the environmental hygiene committees of the 18 District Councils after the "Keep Clean" campaign last year. The Secretary for Food and Health will meet the chairmen and vice-chairmen of the committees every six months to listen to their views on the effectiveness of the Government's environmental hygiene measures with a view to better coordinating overall efforts to address the environmental hygiene issues in Hong Kong.

Ends/Monday, February 1, 2016
Issued at HKT 20:56

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12 Apr 2019