Team Clean: Chief Secretary Donald Tsang (second from right) has a word with the Permanent Secretary for Housing, Planning & Lands, John Tsang, at a briefing on the Interim Report on Measures to Improve Environmental Hygiene in Hong Kong.

Improving Hong Kong's living environment must begin with the individual, extend to the family and the neighbourhood, then radiate throughout the entire community.

This was the message from Chief Secretary Donald Tsang today announcing Team Clean's plan for cleaning up Hong Kong.

"Every member of the community is a member of Team Clean," Mr Tsang said. "We can only achieve our goals for a cleaner, more hygienic Hong Kong if everyone plays their part."

Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa announced the setting up of Team Clean, led by the Chief Secretary, on May 5.

Team Clean has since developed a three-pronged strategy to help change in the way Hong Kong people regard their living environment.

To achieve this, it will:

* Promote individual and community-wide involvement in cleanliness and hygiene efforts;

* Increase civic education; and,

* Strictly enforce food, hygiene and cleanliness regulations, and introduce tougher penalties.

Team Clean recognises the need for a new mindset within Government and the community to develop innovative, sustainable systems that tackle long-standing health and hygiene problems.

The district administration system will play a key role in monitoring neighbourhoods and coming up with initiatives to engender a sense of individual responsibility and collective community pride in environmental hygiene.

Private and public housing blocks are specially targetted. New systems will ensure common areas and facilities are well-maintained and that drainage systems are inspected regularly and, if faulty, repaired quickly.

If owners are unwilling to maintain their buildings properly, the Government will take necessary measures and recover the costs later.

Hygiene in restaurants and cooked food stalls will come under closer inspection, with an immediate crackdown on illegal cooked food hawking and stricter enforcement of food and hygiene regulations in markets and bazaars.

The strategy

There have been many Clean Hong Kong campaigns. While they have resulted in cleaner streets in some areas, they did not develop into a sustained effort.

Team Clean's plans require the community's full involvement, as the hygiene and cleanliness of a city can only be maintained with the support of its people.

District Councils, Area Committees, the District Clean Hong Kong Committees, schools and academics, professional groups, the business sector, social services groups, volunteers, the media and members of the public must all play a part.

To keep Hong Kong clean for good, Team Clean will step up civic education, introduce harsher penalties and develop a system to sustain the efforts.

The administration is prepared to try novel approaches to tackle long-standing problems such as spitting and littering, filthy alleys, poorly maintained tenement buildings, unhygienic food handling practices, and smelly restaurant toilets.

It may even shift responsibilities of various bureaus and departments to make it easier to administer.

Short term measures

Initially, Team Clean aims to establish successful, sustainable models rather than tackling problems in an ad-hoc manner.

It also aims to attain quick and visible results to meet community expectations, inspire public confidence in the Government's determination and ability to improve public hygiene, and to sustain the momentum in the community for serious action to clean up the city.

The integrated approach

To turn Hong Kong into a clean city for good, all efforts must begin with the individual, extend to the family and the immediate neighbourhood, and then radiate throughout the entire community.

Team Clean has set out ambitious but practical and relevant measures concerning personal hygiene, home hygiene, and community hygiene. See http://www.teamclean.gov.hk  for details.

In the long term, Team Clean's goal is to cultivate a community spirit of 'zero tolerance' towards unhygienic practices of any kind.