SPITTING AND LITTERING OFFENCES

Dr Koh Lam Son asked the Minister for the Environment if he will give the number of spitting and littering offences for the years 1986, 1987 and 1988.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment (Mr Eugene Yap Giau Cheng) (for the Minister for the Environment): On behalf of my Minister, Sir. The number of tickets issued for littering and spitting offences in the past three years was as follows: Year Littering Spitting 1986 7,816 128 1987 7,783 113 1988 6,154 83

Dr Koh Lam Son (Telok Blangah): Mr Speaker, I am happy to hear there is some improvement in the situation. May I ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary what is this attributed to, and what further measures will be implemented to further improve the situation?

Mr Eugene Yap Giau Cheng: Sir, firstly greater public awareness. Greater public awareness through campaigns, mini-campaigns, exhibitions, widespread publicity and talks. In fact, Members of Parliament have actually spearheaded some of these campaigns and I would like to thank them for it.

The other is greater or more selective enforcement action in areas that are more litter-prone, spitting-prone. So all these efforts have actually worked together and have a fairly good influence on a large section of the population. The people today are more civic-minded; they are more aware that spitting and littering are bad social habits and refrain from them.

What future plans do we have to further reduce bad habits? Sir, we will carry on with our publicity education programmes. We will also step up our selective enforcement action in areas that are litter-prone, spitting-prone. We will think of new ways, new ideas, to discourage the population from spitting, littering, other bad habits, and of course if Members of Parliament have any useful ideas, we welcome them to share with us. For instance, I think last year Mr Chew Heng Ching suggested that we go on a more carrot-type of method to discourage litterings. Since then we have tried in three constituencies, I believe, Telok Blangah, Tampines and Toa Payoh. Today we are assessing the effectiveness of the competition and of course, if successful, we will introduce them to more constituencies.