DPM Gan Kim Yong at the Clean and Green Singapore Day 2025

My Cabinet colleagues, Ministers Grace Fu, Masagos Zulkifli and David Neo,
Senior Minister of State Sun Xueling and Mayor Baey Yam Keng,
Senior Parliamentary Secretary Goh Hanyan,
Grassroots Advisers of North East District,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning, everyone. It is wonderful to see so many of you gathered here today – residents, students, volunteers, and our partners – to celebrate Clean and Green Singapore Day 2025.

This annual event is more than a celebration; it reflects the everyday work that goes on quietly across our island – recycling drives; food rescue efforts; litter picking; dengue patrols; and many other acts of care.

Each may seem small, but together they build the Singapore we know – clean, green and liveable.

Our Journey

As we mark SG60, it is fitting to reflect on how this journey began.

In the 1960s, Singapore faced serious public health challenges. Spitting and littering were common, and our rivers were choked with waste.

Yet even as our founding leaders grappled with jobs, housing and national security, they made public health and cleanliness a national priority – not only for hygiene reasons, but also to show the discipline and unity of a young nation determined to succeed.

The "Keep Singapore Clean" campaign, launched in October 1968 by our founding Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew, was Singapore's first nationwide public education effort.

Through outreach and enforcement, mindsets began to change.

In 1977, Mr Lee set a 10-year target to clean up the Singapore River and Kallang Basin.

It meant relocating squatters and street hawkers, upgrading sewerage systems, and dredging the riverbed.

A decade later, the once-polluted river became a source of pride, proof that collective effort can achieve lasting change.

Even today, visitors continue to study how Singapore cleaned up the Singapore River.

Our pioneers did not stop there and they looked ahead.

Mr Lee’s “Garden City” vision, launched with the planting of a Mempat tree at Farrer Circus in 1963, transformed Singapore into a city of trees and gardens.

Greenery became part of our identity and our daily life.

This morning, I had the privilege of planting a Tempinis tree – I believed this is where the name Tampines came from. I did it together with Mayor Baey and our colleagues, right next to Our Tampines Hub. Later you can go out and take a look, not just one tree, but several trees were planted.

It is a reminder that each generation must plant and care for what the next will enjoy.

Singaporeans learned that progress is not achieved by Government alone, but by a whole community taking ownership of their environment and their surroundings.

Because of that collective discipline and pride, we now enjoy clean streets, good sanitation, hygienic hawker centre food and abundant urban greenery – these are the hallmarks of a city cared for by its people.

Even with all that we have achieved, there is still room for us to do more and do better.

We still see litter left behind after large events. And I hope today we will not leave any litter behind after this event.

Our household recycling rate also fell to 11% last year, and many blue bins continue to be contaminated with non-recyclables.

Building on a Strong Foundation

Our challenges today are different, but the principle remains the same. Climate change, rising resource use, and the need to live sustainably call for the same sense of shared purpose.

Thankfully, we see encouraging signs everywhere.

At North East CDC and Temasek Polytechnic’s “Leaders of Tomorrow Sustainability Hackathon” this year, 160 students came together to design creative ways to teach primary school pupils about sustainability. The top five teams are now prototyping their ideas.

This is a good example of young people passing on their passion for sustainability to an even younger generation.

The “Grow and Share” initiative, launched by NParks in March this year to mark 20 years of the “Community In Bloom” programme”, encourages local gardening groups across Singapore to organise wide-ranging gardening-related activities.

The initiative runs till the end of this month, so there is still time for gardening enthusiasts to take part.

We also celebrate individuals who embody this spirit.

Kelvin Tan Bah Hwee, a CIB Ambassadors awardee, has been gardening for over 20 years.

At the Lakeside Grove Community Garden, Kelvin created custom garden structures – for his neighbours to enjoy  from planters to hydroponic systems.

He also conducts workshops for schools and community groups, and organises open house sessions and harvest sharing initiatives, nurturing not only the plants around the neighbourhood but also community bonds.  

Foo Kai Xin, an Environmental Services Star awardee and entomologist, applies science and innovation to pest management.

She introduced smart rodent monitoring systems, digital training tools, and non-toxic pest control methods, while mentoring her peers.

Her work shows how professionalism and care can go hand in hand.

These examples – from schools, to gardens, to workplaces – remind us that keeping Singapore clean and green is not the task of few, but the habit of many.

Each of us can act in ways that lighten our footprint – keeping our surroundings clean; recycling right; reducing food waste; bringing reusable bags and containers; and joining local clean-ups.

Small, consistent actions by millions of Singaporeans will make a tangible difference to our environment and climate goals.

Our Green Plan 2030 and Zero Waste Masterplan guide our national efforts, but their success will depend on how we care for our home.

Conclusion

Over the past 60 years, Singapore has built a home that reflects the best of who we are – clean, green and united in purpose.

We achieved this not through grand declarations, but through steady effort – from the kampung clean-ups of the 1960s, to today’s community gardens and sustainability projects.

Each generation has done its part, improving what it inherited and leaving something better behind. That quiet continuity is what keeps Singapore not only clean and green, but full of life.

As we look beyond SG60, let us carry forward the same spirit that built our nation – steady in purpose; generous in effort; and united in care for our home.

For the trees we plant, the habits we keep, and the care we show – all these together form Singapore’s story, written not by a few, but by all of us.

Thank you and have a great day ahead.