ENV needs full-time minister at its helm
WHAT do you think of when the Environment Ministry comes to mind? Yes, sewage disposal, corrective work orders and dirty hawker centres.
Stallholders keep a lookout for the men in white shirts and blue trousers the way motorists look out for the clipboard-toting parking-coupon inspector.
Beyond that, the ministry is really only a tiny blip on the public radar screen most of the time. And it is pretty unfortunate, because the ministry is really about a lot more than catching rats and litterers.
It is at the cutting edge of technology in sewage systems, and seeks to get there in other areas too. The range of scientific knowledge required to do a good job expands by the day. Engineering is an essential, hut biochemistry, nuclear physics and the life sciences won’t be out of place either.
The spate of incidents that thrust the ministry into the limelight recently also highlights its spread of responsibilities. It has had to deal with oil spills at sea, the fear of chemical spills from collided vessels, contaminated water tanks in Bukit Timah Plaza and, most recently, the hand, foot and mouth disease.
If you thought that ENV meant old economy, think again: genetically-modified food, bio-hazardous wastes and jet-setting mosquitoes are just some of the new adversaries the ministry now has to battle.
And, while globalisation is the buzzword in all other ministries, don’t think it has passed ENV by: viruses are as global as they come, and more deadly than Internet hackers or Seattle protesters.
So, with all these factors in mind, would you not agree that the job of the environment minister is a tough one, and certainly one sufficient to occupy the full-time attention of one person?
Yes?
Well, unfortunately, the ministry has never had that privilege, at least, not since 1985. The line-up of ministers at its helm shows that all had another job, at the same time.
Dr Ahmad Mattar (1985-1992) was Minister-in-charge of Muslim affairs; Mr Mah Bow Tan (1993-1994) headed Communications; Rear-Admiral Teo Chee Hean (1995-1996) was Acting ENV Minister while still Senior Minister of State for Defence; Mr Yeo Cheow Tong (1997-1998) shouldered both Health and Environment; Mr Lee Yock Suan (1999-2000) had the Information and the Arts portfolio.
The latest incumbent, all of 10 days in the job, is Acting Minister Urn Swee Say, who is also Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology.
Yet this was not how it was in the beginning: When ENV was first set up in 1972, Mr Urn Kim San relin9uished the education portfolio to devote his attention to the new ministry full-time. Apart from three years (1975-1978) when it had to share a minister, all the years up to 1984 saw the ministry being’given the undivided attention of one man.
Perhaps you could say that ENV did its job so well in its early ~ears that there is no more need for the portfolio to be given so much attention today.
Clean air, clean streets, clean rivers, modern sewage systems — Singapore’s clean and green environment is the envy of many governments around the world.
By the standards of its own mission statement, spelt out at its website, ENV has achieved all it set out to do: a clean living environment, a high standard of public health, a first-rate
infrastructure for waste disposal, and pollution control that results in air and water meeting international standards.
I say, however, that it is time for ENV to be given new challenges and greater attention as a government ministry.
We already have clean air, clean water and clean streets. What more do you want?
Well, how about clean public toilets, clean food centres, rubbish disposal that does not stink up a neighbourhood, clearer guidelines on GM food, statutory standards for indoor air quality, national energy-conservation targets and, perhaps, toughest of all, the eradication of the litter bug?
• Public toilets: There are no statutory design regulations to ensure their hygiene levels, cleanliness and, yes, stench levels. I am told that a certain top hotel failed to install ventilators in the toilets when it renovated one of the floors. Corrective action had to be taken after guests pointed out the oversight.
A shopping mall in the city area relies on cubicles that are open at the top and bottom, instead of ventilators, to disperse smells. Needless to say, these are simply recycled within the toilet complex.
• Food centres: ‘I’hese have come a long way since the 1970s, but they also still have a long way to go in both design and cleanliness. One probably feeds into the other.
• Indoor air quality This remains an area ungoverned by law, resulting not only in sick buildings, but also factories which are veritable death traps. I am told that some new factory complexes were designed without bearing in mind good air circulation. New work had to be done to rectify the defect.
• National energy-conservation targets: On a per capita basis, Singapore has one of the highest energy-consumption rates in the world. A large part of this — 40 per cent is one figure I have heard — goes towards air-conditioning. Isn’t it time the state reminds, nay, requires building designers and architects to come up with buildings that are more eco-friendly?
• Litter bugs: Isn’t it ironic that while Singapore can bust drug syndicates and criminal gangs, it still proves unable to eradicate these pests? Civic consciousness remains lacking to a degree unconscionable in a country with First World aspirations. Any minister, official or citizen who can think up an effective game plan to bring about a change of heart in them deserves his or her weight in gold.
Plenty of work ahead for ENV. But, first, get a full-time minister.
-By Chua Lee Hoong
Source : The Straits Times, Oct 11, 2000
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