60 volunteers to start catching litterbugs within next few weeks
By Saifulbahri Ismail
POSTED: 29 Jun 2013 4:54 PM
(File photo / Channel NewsAsia)
SINGAPORE: Second Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Grace Fu said volunteers from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) will be empowered to catch litterbugs in a few weeks' time.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a cleanliness conference on Saturday, Ms Fu said authority cards will soon be given to 60 of these volunteers who have completed training.
More than 400 participants attended the inaugural Keep Singapore Clean Conference.
It was organised by the Public Hygiene Council in support of the Keep Singapore Clean Movement.
They discussed ways to keep Singapore clean.
Ms Fu stressed the importance of having more ground-up initiatives.
Last year, the government mooted the idea of a community-driven effort to tackle public littering.
Powers will be given to members of the community to catch litterbugs.
Under the scheme, volunteers will ask litterbugs to pick up their litter should they witness littering offences. Should offenders refuse to do so, they would be empowered to record the particulars of the offenders. The National Environment Agency will then investigate the cases before prosecuting the offenders.
The NGOs taking part in the scheme are Public Hygiene Council, Waterways Watch Singapore, Singapore Kindness Movement, Singapore Environment Council and Cat Welfare Society.
Ms Fu said: "The idea is really not to have an enlarged enforcement team but rather to have ownership. In other words Singaporeans see that this enforcement or social pressure comes from another person just like me and I think that the effect will be better rather than to have a uniformed person to go around issuing summons. What we want is to have more ground-up pressure to slowly over time inculcate a social norm that it is in our own responsibility to keep the place clean and not to litter."
Giving an update on the dengue situation, Ms Fu said that although there has not been a spike in the number of cases, it is still important to remain vigilant. She said the authorities are still monitoring the situation closely.
Ms Fu will join Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam at the ASEAN Ministerial Meetings in Brunei, which begins on Saturday. She said she is looking forward to meet her counterparts from the region to explain to them some of the environmental issues Singapore is facing. This includes the haze, which adversely affected Singapore this year. Ms Fu hopes to get their support to look for a regional solution.
- CNA/xq
