• Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of raising hygiene standards
• Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment will also keep a focus on tackling dengue infections and its long term goal of environmental sustainability
• Ms Grace Fu said she expects the sustainability sector to grow and become a source of good paying jobs

SINGAPORE — As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to ravage economies worldwide, it has served as a reminder of the importance of maintaining proper hygiene and control over disease vectors, water quality and food safety, said Singapore’s newly-appointed Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu.

“These are all important, basic necessities in life that we shouldn't take for granted. And I'd like to work on that,” said Ms Fu on Friday (Aug 21) during a virtual session with the media on her plans for the newly-named Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE).

Ms Fu said she wants to prioritise Singapore’s cleanliness, adding that this will be the goal for the next three to six months.

“But we will not be forgetting the longer term goal about (environmental) sustainability,” she added.

CLEANER, KINDER SINGAPORE

Ms Fu said the ministry expects to introduce new legislation within the next six months that aims to set prescribed levels of sanitation and hygiene in Singapore.

This includes setting sanitation standards and requiring people with professional knowledge to be responsible at their own premises.

Responding to a question on why Singapore will be embarking on another cleanliness campaign, Ms Fu said cleanliness standards need to be raised due to the coronavirus.

This will help businesses remain “sustainable” as well, she added.

For example, Ms Fu said hawker centres can remain open with customers kept safe if certain hygiene standards are adhered to.

Part of this effort will also involve educating Singaporeans to be “more considerate and kinder” to each other, particularly to cleaners.

“In order to protect our frontline workers, (such as) the cleaners, we should look after their interests and their health, because for them to come across used tissue or masks at the hawker centre, it's really not fair to them,” she said. “That's not a job hazard they have bargained for.”

MOSQUITOES DON’T RESPECT BOUNDARIES

Dengue infection is another public health hazard that needs to be tackled, said Ms Fu.

She said the issue is partly compounded by the fact that amid the pandemic, Singaporeans are spending more time at home during the day when Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are active, and this increases the chances of someone being infected.

“We are actually very good feed for them,” she said, adding that this means an increase in the mosquito population and dengue infection cases.

To get on top of the situation, she said concurrent operations will be mounted by the National Environment Agency with town councils or condominium managements.

“Mosquitoes don’t respect boundaries, so we need to mount operations together so that we can eradicate them at the same time.”

She said they will be starting with areas with a high number of cases and continuing with its public education campaign.

Ms Fu added that despite constant public reminders, it is surprising that a number of households are still found to be inadvertently breeding mosquitoes.

Giving an update on Project Wolbachia, an initiative to reduce the Aedes aegypti mosquito population, Ms Fu said Singapore is in its fifth phase of tests, and the outcome has been promising.

She said that areas where male mosquitoes infected with the Wolbachia bacterium have been released have been found to have a decrease in the mosquito population and a lower number of dengue cases.

SUSTAINABILITY A GROWING SECTOR FOR JOBS

With a greater focus on sustainability, Ms Fu said that Singaporeans can expect more jobs to be created within this sector.

Aside from research positions, these could also include technical roles in food production, solar energy, desalination, or even those in the circular economy that involve recycling electronic or plastic waste.

“It's really a wide spectrum,” said Ms Fu, who expects the sector to grow with good paying jobs for Singaporeans. “We're quite excited that (the jobs) are going to be found not just in the government agencies, but also in the private sector.”

During her wide-ranging talk, which lasted an hour, Ms Fu also answered questions about tackling plastic pollution by responding that a technological breakthrough would help in “harnessing greater value” out of Singapore’s waste streams.

With regard to energy efficiency, Ms Fu suggested that the Government may consider restricting the sale of highly inefficient equipment.