DPM Heng Swee Keat at Clean and Green Singapore Day 2024

Ministers Grace Fu and Desmond Lee,
Senior Minister of State Amy Khor,
Mayor Low Yen Ling,
Senior Parliamentary Secretary Baey Yam Keng,
Grassroots Advisers for West Coast and Choa Chu Kang GRC,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I am very happy to join all of you again at Clean and Green Singapore this year! Let me first thank NUS for hosting us at your beautiful green campus here in University Town. I am heartened to see many students joining us today. Andrew Khng, Chairman of the Public Hygiene Council, also told me earlier about the good work that the Council has been doing. 

Keeping Singapore clean and green has been a national priority since our independence. Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his team saw this as crucial not only for Singapore’s development, but also to build a place that we are proud to call home. Over the years, we launched national campaigns and mobilised our people to clean up our streets, rivers and waterways, green our public spaces, and improve public hygiene. Just before this, my colleagues and I, together with the NUS community, planted 50 trees to add to the greenery here on campus. 

With this, NUS has now planted 50,000 trees on campus – halfway towards its target of planting 100,000 trees. Minister Desmond Lee, together with his residents, also planted trees at West Coast Park this morning. All these efforts continue a long-standing tradition that Mr Lee Kuan Yew, our “Chief Gardener”, started more than 60 years ago with a single Mempat tree at Farrer Park. Mr Lee was a ‘greenie’ before the term was even invented.I am glad that we have crossed the 70% mark in our national target to plant a million more trees by 2030 – well ahead of schedule!

Together, all these efforts are an important part of our movement to transform Singapore into a “City in Nature”. I have met many visitors to Singapore in the course of my work. They have told me that the most striking thing about our island is how pristine and green we are. It leaves an immediate and lasting impression. All over the island, families also make use of our green spaces for recreation, to stay healthy and build meaningful memories with one another. I launched the Eastern Corridor, an 18-kilometre greenway connecting the east of our island, earlier this year. This is part of our Round Island Route. Many residents have since told me how much they have enjoyed the closer proximity to nature. We will continue to provide more opportunities for our people to connect with nature. This is also good for your physical and mental wellness. I am pleased to announce that from December 2024 until May 2025, NParks will open over 20 therapeutics horticulture programmes for public sign-up across six therapeutic gardens. You can find out more about these programmes on NParks’ website.

At the same time, let us never take our clean and green surroundings for granted. Managing COVID highlighted the importance of maintaining high levels of public cleanliness and hygiene. This year, we had to respond to unfortunate oil spills near our shores, including in my constituency in East Coast. You saw the clean-up efforts in the video earlier. The oil spill disrupted access to beaches and public spaces that many of us use regularly and also affected many businesses. Today, I want to recognise all our workers and volunteers for your remarkable civic-minded efforts. Following the oil spill in June, more than 800 cleaning personnel and 2,300 volunteers stepped forward to support clean-up efforts. With their help, more than 3,750 tonnes of debris were removed, and we could reopen our beaches and parks quickly. If you do the math, this means more than one tonne of debris per worker and volunteer – quite remarkable! Thank you all for your contributions! 

The success of our collective response reinforces an important point, A Clean and Green Singapore has always been more than a slogan. It is a commitment. A commitment that we make to one another – to our family and friends, and to the wider community – as well as to future generations. It is part of the legacy we have inherited from the Pioneer and Merdeka generations. As we celebrate Clean and Green Singapore today, we should remember that we are responsible for preserving and enhancing this legacy as we pass it on to those who come after us.

This is not just about our physical environment. It also about the society we live in – one where we care for one another, and practice being good neighbours and active citizens.We all have a role to play in keeping our shared spaces clean, enhancing our green public spaces, and spreading awareness about sustainable practices. These are all part of investing in our shared tomorrow.

This is the spirit behind designating 2024 as the Year of Public Hygiene. In June, we launched Go Green SG to encourage greater collective action for environmental sustainability and public hygiene. I am happy to hear that the month-long campaign garnered nearly 51,000 participants and involved 200 partners across 400 activities including learning journeys, workshops and talks. The movement also fostered meaningful collaborations, such as “Trashion Week” by Stridy and Vintagewknd, where participants cleaned up our streets while dressed in upcycled clothing. So far, local partners, non-governmental organisations and schools have also organised 135 activities in support of the Year of Public Hygiene. These include community clean-ups and outreach projects to promote a stronger culture of cleanliness. For example, through its Corporate Action Network, the Public Hygiene Council rallies businesses to keep Singapore clean by sharing best practices and collaborative efforts.

We saw some of these in the video earlier. Yen Ling also spoke about the different sustainability programmes in the South West district, and the Sustainable South West Masterplan. This morning, my colleagues and I launched a new Public Hygiene Council CleanPod at West Coast Park and put it to use immediately with a community clean-up. These CleanPods offer convenient access to shared tools like tongs, buckets and garden carts, making it easier and more convenient for residents to keep our surroundings clean. We now have 21 CleanPods across parks, beaches and housing estates. I encourage all residents to tap on this resource and use it more. I hope that we sustain this collective effort to keep Singapore clean. I also encourage all stakeholders to keep up the momentum of your good work beyond this Year of Public Hygiene, and well into the future.

Our collective efforts are also crucial to respond to the existential threat of climate change. In 2021, we launched the Singapore Green Plan 2030 to advance our national climate and sustainable development agenda. Minister Grace and her team have been working hard to rally all sectors to achieve their Green Plan targets. But the Green Plan will only be successful with active contributions from our people.

For example, households can take climate action by using appliances that are more energy and water-efficient. To better encourage this, we enhanced the Climate Friendly Households Programme in April this year to offer families $300 Climate vouchers to buy such appliances from over 400 stores islandwide. We have seen a very encouraging response. As of October, 73% of eligible households have redeemed their vouchers and one-third have already started using them. I encourage more households to also start redeeming them. We are also expanding the network of retailers to give families more options. It has also been heartening to see neighbours and friends support one another on their green journeys.

For example, through NParks’ Community in Bloom programme, volunteers nurture an interest and appreciation for gardening among residents across more than 2,000 community gardens. We will be honouring seven outstanding volunteers today as Community in Bloom Ambassadors, for their dedication and service. Thanks and congratulations to all of you!

Community efforts like the ones I just mentioned enable us to continue keeping Singapore clean and green for future generations. Still, there is more that we can do, especially in certain key areas. For example, public toilet cleanliness. SPS Baey and Public Hygiene Council Chairman Andrew are co-leading a Public Toilets Taskforce to look into how we can improve the cleanliness of our public toilets. Topics being studied by the taskforce include design and infrastructure, cleaning and maintenance, enforcement, and public engagement.

Even as the taskforce works on its recommendations, we can already do our part. Later this month, NEA and the Public Hygiene Council, with partners, will launch a “Cleaner Public Toilets” campaign to rally all residents to practice good public toilet behaviour through four actions: Clean, Flush, Dry, and Bin. I encourage all of you to actively support this.

As a society, we should also appreciate those who work hard to keep Singapore clean and green. We will be recognising 27 individuals from the cleaning, waste management and pest management sectors this year with the Environmental Services Star Award for their exemplary service and commitment. Beyond today, appreciating our Environmental Services workforce also means helping them future-proof in the face of rapid technological change. So, I am pleased to announce that Temasek Polytechnic, the Environmental Management Association of Singapore and NEA are collaborating on the first SkillsFuture Career Transition Programme for the Environmental Services industry.

This new programme will be launched in April 2025. More details will be available on Temasek Polytechnic’s website later this month. It will support mid-career individuals in acquiring industry-relevant skills in areas like technology application for operations, compliance and standards, and sustainability practices. The full-time train-and-place programme will take place over three months. It comprises 11 short courses on topics like robotics and automation applications, and outcome-based contracting for cleaning services. Through this programme, we hope to attract more talented mid-careerists to the Environmental Services sector with growth opportunities to build meaningful careers and do impactful work. 

In closing, let me reiterate: a Clean and Green Singapore is not a destination but an ongoing journey.

Next year, we celebrate Singapore’s 60th birthday. Keeping our nation clean and green remains an integral part of our collective commitment to building a better future. Through our individual actions, galvanised communities and an uplifted workforce, let us continue to uphold and enhance the legacy that our founding generation passed on to us.

Thank you.

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