Dengue Alert: March 2006

Feedback On Drains and Road - St Michael's Road

Sent to NEA:

See the big styrofoam box in the drain outside st michael's lodge.
The almost 100% covered-up drop-inlet-chambers and the dirty drain near richmond condo.
These debris will eventually flow into kallang river and end up in Marina Barrage and it will become a dumping ground instead of water-sport centre or reservoir.

CBD area - Anson Road

Sent to NEA:

See our business and commericial district. BTW, the drop-inlet-chambers are still not clean.

Feedback On Drains and Road - Yung Sheng Road/Taman Jurong CC

There is a flood of contributions (with photos) today, 29 Mar 2006. The following was sent to the NEA today:

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See the mess outside taman jurong cc and your officer can report the place as clean. Remind me of Johore.

Hopefully when Minister Tharman visit the CC in Apr, the area will be sparkling clean!

Feedback On Drains and Road - Boon Lay Way

Sent to the NEA CEO on 29 Mar 2006:

In your email below, you claimed that the drains were"satisfactorily maintained".

See yesterday, your cleaners managed to sweep 20-30 bags of dirt!

Also the cleaners should clear the rubbish immediately instead of leaving it overnight. What happen if this is a road side bomb left behind by terrorist?

Police pls commend and enforce.

The last time I saw such thorough cleaning was during the dengue outbreak in Oct/Nov. Since then, NEA has slacken again. NEA need to review your standard! Hope we do not need another dengue outbreak then we start to clean up again.

Garden City ?

MM Lee's GRC: Dirty drain off Anson Road - in front of Tanjong Pagar Complex

Sent to NEA on 28 Mar 2006:

See dirty drain off Anson Road in front of Tanjong Pagar Complex.

Coincidentally, this is also in MM Lee's GRC.

Re: Feedback On Drains and Road - Jurong East Str 32 and Ave 1

Sent to NEA on 27 Mar 2006
cc: MM Lee and Minister of Environment and Water Resources. :

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Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2006 10:20:44 +0800 (CST)

Re: Feedback On Drains and Road - Jurong East Str 32 and Ave 1

To: Selvanayagam INTHRALINGAM Selvanayagam_INTHRALINGAM@nea.gov.sg, TCKHOO@PUB.GOV.SG, LEE_Yuen_Hee@nea.gov.sg

CC: LEE_KUAN_YEW@PMO.GOV.SG, YAACOB_IBRAHIM@MEWR.GOV.SG, Jeff Ho denguealert@yahoo.com

cc: MM Lee and Minister of Environment and Water Resources.

See attached photo of the drains along jurong east str32, opp blk 311.

The cardboard and coconut in the drains were there since early Mar. The surrounding areas (including jurong east ave #1 which you claimed to be "sufficiently maintained") are littered with lots of plastic bottles, plastic bags, cigarettes boxes etc.

Check it out and pls ensure that the outsource companies do their work and dun waste taxpayer money.

CEO - PUB and NEA, unless NEA contractors do a good job in cleaning up the drains, the debris will eventually flow into Singapore river and drainage system and make it polluted. And the next big rain comes, the choked drains will cause another flash flood.

NEA/PUB will give excuses that the heavy rains co-incide with the high tides again.

NEA & PUB can work closer together to make singapore water even cleaner and less polluted. It is almost 3 decades, I think we have achieve much more than MMLee's standard/dreams set in 1977.

http://www1.moe.edu.sg/learn@/singaporerivertrail/sec/G041_Dunman_Sec/river_cleaning.htm

If you are not interested in doing your job well, there are a lot of retrenched workers out there who would love your job and possibly lower pay.

ps: more dirty photos of singapore coming up over the next few days....

Mosquitoes are back - source: ovitraps?

Sent to NEA:

27 Mar 2006

I am surprised that NEA did not manage to locate breeding areas when the residents are attacked by up to 10 mosquitoes on some days/nights!

What about the ovitraps set up all over the areas - don't they show up anything or are they actually the source of the breedings?

The logical conclusion is that if the mosquitoes did not come from the drains or other breeding areas, then they possibly must have come from the ovitraps?

Filthy area/drain at Wallich Road near Wallich Bldg

Reply from Tg Pagar Town Council:

I refer to your e-mail about the filthy drain at Wallich Road near Wallich Building. We have referred the matter to the National Environment Agency( NEA ) as the drain is maintained by them. We will also checked with them next week to confirm that they have cleared the drain.

Simon Koh

General Manager

Tanjong Pagar Town Council

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Sent to Tg Pagar Town Council:

The drain at subject location is filled with filth. Who is responsible for cleaning?

For your additional information, I am attaching a letter in today's Straits Times, "Sadly, Singapore is not as clean as it is said to be" (ST, 24 Mar) which highlights the present sorry state of Singapore's once-proud claim to being a "clean city". ======================================================================

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/forum/story/0,5562,379937,00.html?

March 24, 2006

Sadly, Singapore is not as clean as it is said to be

I agree with the concerns about the horrendous littering in Singapore. This problem seems never to end. When I first came from Sri Lanka to Singapore nine years ago I was amazed to see how beautiful and clean Singapore's neibourhoods were. I used to write letters to my friends and even produced newspaper articles about this clean and green tiny city state. Last year when I was living in West Coast I came across litter more often on our strolls. I consoled myself that the litter was unintentionally thrown. But the problem became worse. Tissue paper, cigarette butts, drink cartons, plastic bags, etc marred the beautiful flower bushes. When we moved to the Serangoon area four months ago, I saw how things had become worse. Whether it's an HDB estate or private housing development, the situation is the same. Most of the owners or domestic helpers who bring their dogs out do not clean up after them. Just look at the mess near Nanyang Junior College's new signboard. Some schools in the area seem to close their eyes to the litter even within their premises. Spitting is another problem. Recently we saw two teenage school girls drinking fruit juices in a double decker bus and they left behind the cups where they sat. I'm sad to hear that a friend who came to the National University of Singapore to do some research say that "Singapore is not as clean as it is said to be." With a heavy heart, I said "It used to be." There's no need to be a Singaporean to love Singapore. When I was young, my parents said "love your country and also love and respect the place where you are living in." We must not always expect the country to do its part for us. We must do our duty as well. If the elders are not listening, the young must be educated about it. The authorities can organise mass cleaning drives. If the younger generation is not trained to be responsible and patriotic what will the future be?

Sagarika Rathninde (Mrs)

Feedback On Drains and Road

Exchange of emails between resident and NEA:

If you find those areas reasonable clean, I think your standard is far to low. Over next few days, I will arm my camera and I will send you the photos.

--- Selvanayagam INTHRALINGAM<Selvanayagam_INTHRALINGAM@nea.gov.sg> wrote:>

Dear Ms K

We refer to your feedback dated 20 Mar 2006 to NEA which was copied to our CEO Mr Lee Yuen Hee.

2. Thank you for your feedback. We wish to clarify that NEA had initiated action on your feedbacks dated 20 Feb and 1 Mar 2006. We had also replied to you via email on 22 Feb and
2 Mar 2006 on the actions taken.

3. We had again re-checked the drains and drop-inlet-chambers along Anson Road and found that, although there were some leaves in them, they were in a satisfactory condition. Action was taken to remove the leaves.

4. As for your feedback about the drain in front of Taman Jurong CC , our inspection on 20 Mar 06 showed that the drain was in a satisfactory condition. No rubbish was observed in the drain. We also did not detect any foul smell. Further , our re-inspection of the drains at Boon Lay Way and Jurong East Avenue 1 showed that the drains were, similarly, satisfactorily maintained.

5. The cleaning of public areas, public roads, pavements and drains are either carried out by National Environment Agency's workers or contractors appointed by us. We set specific performance standards to ensure that the cleaning of streets, pavements and drains under our contractors' purview are carried out according to a set schedule. We conduct regular checks to monitor their performance. Penalties are imposed on contractors who do not meet the prescribed performance standards.

6. Once again, we thank you for your valuable feedback.

Sincerely

S INTHRALINGAM
for HEAD
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH DEPARTMENT
NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AGENCY

Ref: DT63139140 : Neglected Street at JURONG EAST AVENUE 1

Sent to the NEA on 20 Mar 2006:

I wrote to NEA on 20th Feb to highlight that the drains and Drop inlet chamber along Anson Road were dirty.

1 month has past yet no one has clean up these area.

On 28th Feb, again I wrote to highlight other roads that were dirty, same thing, it is still not clean.

Over the weekend, I noticed that drain in front ofTaman Jurong CC was full of rubbish and it stinked.

CEO NEA, appreciate your kind attention and if your officers could ensure that the cleaning contractors are cleaning the streets and not paid for doing nothing.

Jeff Ho, maybe you could start a blog to post photo of dirty areas in Singapore.

(Note from Jeff Ho: Yes, a blog has been set up - visit http://www.towncouncils.blogspot.com .)

Perpetually choked drain outside 32/34 Chancery Lane

Flwg sent to NEA on 20 Mar 2006:

This drain seems to be perpetually choked as I have written in on numerous occasions before - perhaps it is advisable to fix the "real" problem rather than just getting the cleaners to clear the drain.

I have also asked NEA's Mr Chia to investigate the recent complaints by residents of Gilstead Rd/Gentle Rd/Buckley Rd areas (in the vicinity of this drain in Chancery Road) that the mosquitoes are back the last 4 weeks or so.