Speech by SPS Baey Yam Keng - Committee of Supply 2025

4 March 2025

Transcript of speech by SMS Baey Yam Keng at MSE's Committee of Supply debate 2025 on 4 March 2025.

Mr Chairman,

Introduction

“Our Sustainability, Our Resilience, Our Everyday” represents MSE’s unwavering commitment to a clean, green, and resilient Singapore. Over the last six decades, we have made significant progress in ensuring high levels of public health as our way of life.
To reinforce good hygiene practices for our collective well-being, MSE designated 2024 as the Year of Public Hygiene. I will update on our efforts in addressing persistent challenges such as littering hotspots, rat infestations, and public toilet cleanliness.

Year of Public Hygiene

Managing Littering Hotspots

Our community is generally civic-minded, but littering remains a concern due to the inconsiderate actions of some people. Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked about NEA’s efforts in improving cleanliness at littering hotspots. In 2024, NEA increased littering enforcement, conducting about 130 blitzes, a sixfold increase from 2023.
NEA’s camera surveillance capabilities were also strengthened, allowing up to 1,000 CCTV deployments a year, compared to 250 in 2023. Last year, CCTVs were deployed 300 times at 13 identified littering hotspots, enhancing operational effectiveness leading to a 36% reduction in litter count between May and December 2024.
Thanks to collective efforts by premises owners, cleaners, and members of the public, Causeway Point, Chinatown Complex, Jurong Point and Vista Point are on track to be exited from the littering hotspots. NEA will continue to tackle the remaining hotspots through appropriate interventions, including public education and enforcement.

Tackling High-Rise Littering

On high-rise littering, we share Ms Hany Soh’s concern. High-rise littering is a serious offence, as it poses a danger to the public and dirties the environment. To address it, NEA has leveraged camera surveillance and the presumption clause in the Environmental Public Health Act.
Other technologies are used as well. Ms Soh and Ms Nadia will be glad to know that data analytics have allowed NEA to prioritise camera deployments and shorten the investigation process, leading to more timely enforcement actions. In the coming months, NEA will also extend camera surveillance duration from the current 14 days, to up to 28 days, to improve the chances of capturing high-rise littering incidents.

Enhancing Vector Control

Reducing the incidence of vector-borne diseases remains a priority. Ms Soh and Mr Eric Chua asked about MSE’s pest control efforts. In 2024, NEA worked with stakeholders on upstream measures to improve their housekeeping and refuse management. This is to deny rats access to habitats and food sources, especially food waste. In addition, NEA also provided training and practical resources, such as guidelines and cleaning and maintenance sample contract specifications, to help stakeholders manage rat-related issues holistically.
Ms Nadia may be interested to hear that NEA also uses technology to enhance rat surveillance for more targeted interventions. One example is the implementation of thermal imaging technology that complements existing ones such as infrared cameras, with clearer data on potential food sources for rats, their congregation areas, and pathways.
As rats multiply quickly, keeping the rat population low requires sustained efforts from everyone. To this end, NEA shares surveillance data with stakeholders, such as Town Councils and premises owners, so that they can implement measures to prevent rat infestations, including denying the access to habitats and food sources.
Enforcement will continue to play a key role. In 2024, intensified enforcements by NEA and SFA saw more than 1,000 enforcement actions taken against premises owners or occupiers for rat-related lapses, almost twice the number in 2023. From 1 April 2025, NEA will tighten its enforcement regime, including for poor refuse management and housekeeping.
Shifting to mosquito control, community vigilance and innovations like Project Wolbachia have helped us avoid major dengue surges in 2023 and 2024. Going forward, we will scale up Project Wolbachia. The expansion to Jurong East since February and Jurong West in April this year will increase Project Wolbachia’s coverage to 580,000 households.
By the end of 2026, 800,000 households, or about 50% of all households in Singapore, will benefit from Project Wolbachia. I assure Mr Gan that we will announce details on future expansion when ready. NEA will also be conducting pilots to understand the technology’s ability to disrupt dengue clusters.
To address Mr Chua’s residents’ concerns on Wolbachia-Aedes releases, NEA will respond promptly to feedback to assure residents on the temporary nature of the increased mosquito presence. Over time, with the community’s support, we can maintain low mosquito population, which will lead to fewer releases.
Even as we leverage technology, stakeholders and residents must continue to take action to prevent mosquito breeding. Community vigilance is needed to keep dengue at bay.

Towards Cleaner Public Toilets

Several Members have asked about public toilet cleanliness and the Public Toilets Taskforce’s recommendations. The Taskforce focused on public toilets that consistently fare poorly in cleanliness surveys, including that conducted by Singapore Management University students.
After almost a year of engagement and discussions, the Taskforce, which I co-chaired with Mr Andrew Khng, the Chairman of Public Hygiene Council, submitted our recommendations to Minister Grace Fu recently. Minister has shared that MSE endorses the Taskforce’s recommendations, namely to “Build Well, Clean Well, and Use Well”. Let me elaborate on MSE’s response.
First, to achieve cleaner public toilets, good toilet design is important as it facilitates easy maintenance. To this end, we welcome the Taskforce’s list of recommended toilet design features. Deep cleaning and providing better training support for cleaners are also critical to improve toilet cleanliness. The Taskforce also recommended grants to support coffeeshop operators in toilet upgrading or deep cleaning.
Mr Chairman, coffeeshops are privately-operated commercial premises. However, they keep their toilets accessible to patrons and non-patrons, providing a public service to the community. This is particularly important in an ageing population, as seniors may have more difficulties in managing bladder and bowel control. Instead of building public toilets in the community, the government could tap on the Singapore culture of coffeeshops being natural gathering points for residents.
I am happy to announce that MSE will set aside $5 million dollars each for a Coffeeshop Toilet Renovation Grant and a Coffeeshop Toilet Deep Cleaning Grant. Coffeeshop operators can apply to NEA for funding of up to 95% of their toilet renovation costs, capped at $50,000 per coffeeshop. They can also apply for up to 95% funding of their two-year deep cleaning contract cost, capped at $25,000 per coffeeshop.
More information will be provided to coffeeshops to help them understand the recommended design features, the adoption of which is a criterion for the renovation grant. Successful grant applicants will also receive complimentary on-site training for their in-house cleaners to improve their cleaning effectiveness and efficiency.
However, grants alone are not enough. Toilet users and community volunteers can also contribute to cleaner toilets. To cultivate shared responsibility for public toilet cleanliness, we endorse the Taskforce’s recommendation to refresh the Happy Toilet Programme by the Restroom Association Singapore, and expand the Neighbourhood Toilets Community Group programme by the Public Hygiene Council.
Leveraging technology, such as feedback systems, can facilitate timely feedback, and contribute to public toilet cleanliness. With the Taskforce’s support, the ReportLah! solution is now trialled at over 10 coffeeshops in Singapore.
Furthermore, we will continue to enforce against errant operators, including suspensions where necessary. In 2024, NEA and SFA stepped up inspections on public toilet cleanliness. Close to 19,000 inspections were carried out, with about 1,300 enforcement actions taken against premises owners and managers. I am heartened that premises have taken action to rectify lapses and encourage them to sustain their efforts to ensure cleaner toilets for all.
Over time, we hope that these measures will break the cycle of dirty coffeeshop toilets, so that the public can enjoy better and cleaner toilets.
Mr Chairman, I will now say a few words in Mandarin.
在咖啡店里和街坊邻居聊天、聚会，是新加坡文化的一部分。无论有没有在咖啡店用餐，公众都能使用里头的厕所。这是咖啡店业者为社区提供的公共设施。在一个老龄化的社会, 这尤其重要。因此，政府将为咖啡店业者提供津贴，鼓励他们采纳良好的公厕设计，以及定期为厕所进行深度洁净工作，让公众能使用更优质和干净的厕所。
永续发展与环境部将拨出1000万元推出咖啡店厕所翻新津贴和咖啡店厕所深度洁净津贴。成功申请者的清洁工人也将获得免费的实地洁净培训，协助提高厕所的清洁度。国家环境局将提供更多有关津贴的详情。要改善公厕的卫生，需要厕所业者和使用者一起持续努力。厕所洁净，人人受益。

Tackling Second-hand Smoke

Finally, Mr Louis Ng asked about legislating a smoking ban at windows and balconies. Expanding smoking restrictions to cover private homes, or windows and balconies, must be carefully considered as this infringes the privacy of people in their own homes. Even with legislation, we need enforcement for restrictions to be effective. The challenge is that current technologies do not allow the detection of smoking activities at home without infringing privacy.
However, I urge smokers to exercise social responsibility to minimise the impact that smoking has on the well-being of others, including their neighbours. I know that some smokers choose to smoke at windows and balconies so that their family members are not exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke.
As the Chinese saying goes, “己所不欲勿施于人”, which means “extending to others the courtesy you would like in return”, I urge smokers to exercise the same consideration to their neighbours. Close the door and windows if you do smoke at home. Otherwise, go downstairs and smoke away from your block in a non-smoking prohibited area, such as open spaces and unsheltered carparks.
We can work harder as a community to engender a more gracious society as we shape social norms on acceptable smoking behaviour. MSE and NEA will work together with stakeholders to develop ground-up solutions and promote socially responsible behaviour.

Longer-Term Approach Towards Public Hygiene & Cleanliness

The Year of Public Hygiene has empowered the community and stakeholders to explore new ways to achieve better public health outcomes. To consolidate these gains, NEA will introduce a new concept of operations.
Called “Cleaner Neighbourhood”, this aims to strengthen community involvement. NEA will adopt an integrated operations and outreach approach to tackle hotspots with cleanliness, refuse management, and congregation problems.
NEA will also seek to address issues upstream, with broader community involvement and greater use of technology. This will include upskilling NEA officers to be more effective at managing multi-faceted public hygiene issues.
NEA will embrace greater use of video analytics and AI to enhance surveillance and enforcement capabilities, with data used to identify hotspots that require greater intervention. Surveillance data will also be shared with stakeholders such as Town Councils, trade premises, and dormitory operators to better support their preventive and corrective measures.
Finally, NEA will strengthen community ownership by collaborating with community leaders and partners to reinforce and sustain proactive citizenry without over-reliance on enforcement. A new initiative, called the Community Action for Cleanliness, will drive this endeavour. It will complement operations at identified hotspots with engagement of local stakeholders to address community pain points more holistically and effectively.

Leveraging Technology

To Ms Poh Li San and Ms Nadia’s queries, technology is also being leveraged in other parts of MSE Family to improve productivity and deliver better public services.
Since February 2024, PUB has implemented an AI-enabled video analytics solution to inspect drainage inlets along 7,000 km of roadside drains. The technology provides for speedier and more accurate detection of defects, allowing PUB to respond in a timelier manner.
In 2022, SFA introduced its first mobile lab for on-site testing during food safety incidents. This allows SFA to quickly identify potential food safety risks on-site at large scale events. SFA is now developing a second-generation mobile lab that can handle substantially higher testing volume with faster results.

Advancing Together: Our Sustainability, Our Resilience, Our Everyday

Empowering Community Action

Mr Chairman, we received strong support from the community in the Year of Public Hygiene. Over 1,700 activities were co-organised by NEA and community partners to promote good cleanliness and hygiene practices. Many partners will continue these initiatives in 2025 and beyond.
For example, the Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC) ran a campaign titled "Clean Districts, Amazing Communities" in partnership with NEA, seven Town Councils and susGain. Over 120 litter-picking activities and 620 zero-waste activities were completed by the various CDAC centres islandwide from June to September 2024. Post-campaign, CDAC continued its partnership with NEA to promote a sustainable lifestyle among its beneficiaries and volunteers.
Associate Professor Razwana asked about community engagement and action. This year, as we celebrate SG60, we will provide more opportunities for everyone to co-create a sustainable Singapore together. Since the launch of the SG Eco Fund in 2020, more than $13 million in funding has empowered over 300 individuals, groups and organisations to initiate projects that involve the community to advance environmental sustainability.
To catalyse more community-led projects, we have raised the maximum grant for the SG Eco Fund’s Sprout category, which is the entry tier, from $8,000 to $30,000 for all successful applications received this year. I encourage interested parties to step forward in the spirit of SG60 and the SG Eco Fund, to play your special part and make a difference together.

Nurturing Youth Actions

Connecting like-minded partners, including our youths, strengthen our collective ability to tackle sustainability and climate change issues. Last year, I talked about how the #GreenHacks Youth Panel lets interested youths contribute to policymaking and other green efforts. The Panel has since submitted its recommendations to address low domestic recycling rates.
This year, we will forge on with the Climate Youth Development Programme. Over the past two years, we have equipped 80 youths with relevant knowledge so that they can contribute purposefully towards sustainability and climate change issues. Some of them have since amplified their learnings to other stakeholders and started ground-up projects to encourage community action.
We are inspired by our youths’ dedication to a cleaner, greener Singapore. Through our initiatives, we will partner and enable them to be effective pathfinders of our present, and their future. Fellow Singaporeans can play a part as well. Join Our Coastal Conversations to shape the future of our coastal areas, participate in the annual Go Green SG from 16 May to 29 June 2025, and practise green habits to support our sustainable cooling movement. There is a lot more that we can do together.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a clean, green, and resilient Singapore is not by chance. MSE will continue to partner all segments of society to make a difference. Together, we can achieve sustainability, resilience, and a better everyday life for all.