Average waiting time in the city for a niche to hold cremated remains is four years – longer than it takes to get a public housing flat
ERNEST.KAO@SCMP.COM
UPDATED : Sunday, 03 April, 2016, 5:54pm
Funeral operator Kenneth Leung says the city could face a shortage of 400,000 urn spaces by 2023 if nothing is done. Photo: Bruce Yan
Better town planning will be needed to meet the burial space needs of a rapidly greying population, according to a fifth-generation proprietor of one of Hong Kong’s oldest funeral businesses.
In the worst-case scenario, the city could face a shortage of 400,000 urn spaces by 2023 if nothing is done, warns Kenneth Leung Ka-keung of the 78-year-old family-owned Leung Chun Woon Kee.
“The government doesn’t have a plan after 2022,” said Leung. “We are very concerned about the future shortage and imbalance of urn spaces. At an average wait time of four years it takes longer for people to wait for niches than a public housing flat.”
Niches for cremated remains at a public columbarium in Hong Kong. Photo: AP
In 2010, the government had pledged to add 450,000 new public niches across the city’s 18 districts by 2022. But Leung pointed out that only 2,540 new niches had been built as of last year.
No new niches will hit the market this year or next. A stock of 855 will arrive in 2018 at Happy Valley Cemetery, but 160,000 planned niches in Tuen Mun and 20,000 in Kwai Tsing will not be ready until 2019 at the earliest.
The private sector will not be able to fill the gap. The supply of urn spaces in the private sector will have grown from 25,800 spaces in 2011 to 72,000 by next year – an increase roughly equivalent to the annual demand for cremations. But pressure from the dire shortage in the public sector was pushing demand and prices up steeply at private facilities.
Leung said draft legislation for a licensing regime for private columbarium operators risked putting 80,000 niches at unauthorised operators in limbo once in effect. The government has said it would be able to provide temporary storage for about 50,000.
Under the bill, only licensed columbariums can trade in niche places. Those built before 1990 may be exempted on condition that there will be no more intake. A grace period of up to six years will be given to rectify problems.
Factoring the number of cremations per year – about 52,000 – the planned facilities and the new legislation, Leung calculated that the shortage in public niches would increase from 215,145 in 2019 to 398,145 by 2023.
He said a major challenge was getting districts to agree to build columbariums – a not-in-my-backyard (Nimby) mentality that was hard to overcome.
“Residents don’t really feel the severity of the shortage until someone close to them dies and must arrange a burial,” he said.
“This is a town planning issue and government departments should really work together to come up with better designs and management.”
Leung urged the government to look at more ways to increase the supply of burial spaces, such as redeveloping old industrial buildings, rezoning and providing more incentives for the private sector to develop new facilities. He also called for more details and clarity on the draft legislation.
The Food and Health Bureau says members of the public who need to use niches before the enactment of the bill may wish to consider options including temporary storage of ashes.
These include making use of niches already allocated by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department or the Board of Management of the Chinese Permanent Cemeteries for placing additional sets of ashes; scattering the ashes at sea; or keeping the ashes at home.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1933173/plea-better-town-planning-rapidly-ageing-hong-kong
