Lawmaker seeks tougher pest control in areas being revamped as rat numbers rise
A lawmaker yesterday called on the government to review and step up rat-control measures in districts that are set to be redeveloped, after construction waste was found to have helped push the city's rodent infestation rate to a seven-year high.
The call came after Kwun Tong, a former industrial area with redevelopment work expected to start next year, was found to be the most infested district. Its infestation rate rose from 5.3 per cent last year to 18.8 per cent in the first half of this year.
The citywide rodent infestation rate - calculated from the percentage of rat bait consumed - this year is 8.5 per cent, the highest since 2002, compared with 6.3 per cent last year.
After inspecting a rat black spot in a back lane near Tsun Yip Street in the Kwun Tong's factory area, Rhonda Lo Yuet-yee, acting director of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, said vacant units in disused factories in Kwun Tong and construction waste left after renovation were the cause of the pest problem because they provided hiding and breeding places for rats.
Kowloon East lawmaker Fred Li Wah-ming, who expected that the district's rat problem would reach its peak in the next two years after redevelopment began, called on the department to step up pest control and look into how to tackle the rat problem related to construction waste.
The 5.3 hectare redevelopment project will cost HK$30 billion. It is expected to take 12 years to complete, turning Kwun Tong into a commercial and retail centre.
Li said: 'The serious rat problem in factory areas in Kwun Tong proves that it's wrong to think that the pest problem is worst near restaurants. The situation can be as bad in factory areas if no one pays attention to it.'
He suggested prosecution of construction-waste dumpers.
An Urban Renewal Authority spokesman said management companies had been hired to clear rubbish left in vacant units and construction waste produced during the redevelopment project would be carefully treated.
Besides Kwun Tong, four other districts registered a double-digit rodent infestation rate. They are Southern (11.8 per cent), Islands (12 per cent), Eastern (15.6 per cent) and Tuen Mun (16.7 per cent). The rate in Tuen Mun was up almost 10 percentage points, from 1.7 per cent last year.
The department has stepped up pest-control measures in the five districts by increasing the number of poisonous baits.
In the first six months of this year, the department trapped and eliminated about 13,700 rats, and filled about 3,800 rat holes. About 3,300 warnings had been issued during inspections.
