Nearly 80 people caught on camera throwing litter out of high-rise blocks
Published on Dec 12, 2013
Seventy-three people have been caught on camera in the act of throwing litter out of high-rise blocks since the authorities installed surveillance cameras in housing areas. -- FILE PHOTO: MINISTRY OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER RESOURCES
By Grace Chua
Seventy-three people have been caught on camera in the act of throwing litter out of high-rise blocks since the authorities installed surveillance cameras in housing areas.
The figure includes two nabbed during a small pilot trial in 2011, the National Environment Agency said. Since August 2012, the agency has deployed its surveillance cameras 880 times in 581 high-rise littering hotspots, which has helped address the problem in 81 per cent of these places.
Prior to the scheme, the agency had prosecuted just 42 people for the offence in a decade.
There are thousands of complaints about high-rise littering a year, Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Balakrishnan told Parliament in May this year, and suggested that penalties - a fine of up to $1,000 for first-time offenders - may have to be reviewed.
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