National Environment Agency

Last updated

National Environment Agency
Nealogo.png
Agency overview
Formed1 July 2002;22 years ago (2002-07-01)
Jurisdiction Government of Singapore
Headquarters40 Scotts Road, Environment Building #13-00, Singapore 228231
Agency executives
  • Lee Chuan Seng, Chairman [1]
  • Wong Kang Jet, CEO [2]
Parent agency Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment
Website www.nea.gov.sg
Agency IDT08GB0035F
The headquarters of the National Environment Agency, Singapore is located at Environment Building on Scotts Road. Environment Building 2, Feb 06.JPG
The headquarters of the National Environment Agency, Singapore is located at Environment Building on Scotts Road.

National Environment Agency (NEA) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment of the Government of Singapore.

Contents

The NEA is responsible for improving and sustaining a clean and green environment in Singapore. Its role is to fight pollution, maintain public health, and provide meteorological information.

On April 1, 2019, NEA's food related duties were absorbed by its successor Singapore Food Agency (SFA) which also absorbed the food related duties of two other statutory boards namely Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) and Health Sciences Authority (HSA). SFA is a statutory board under the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment. [3]

Organization

NEA comprises three operational divisions:

Environmental Public Health Divisions

The Environmental Public Health Division conducts comprehensive ground surveillance and takes preventive measures to ensure a high standard of public health and hygiene. It is responsible for the overall cleanliness in Singapore and imposes a high standard of hygiene requirements on the food retail industry. It also implements the Hawker Centres Upgrading Programme (HUP) and the Clean Public Toilets Programme. It enforces smoking ban in places such as hawker centres, food shops, shopping centres, factories and offices; and conducts vector control against mosquitoes and rats.

Environmental Protection Divisions

The Environmental Protection Division is responsible for implementing programmes to monitor, reduce and prevent environmental pollution. It is also responsible for providing refuse disposal services through four waste-to-energy incineration plants and an off-shore sanitary landfill. To conserve energy resources and landfill space, the division implements programmes to minimise waste generation, and maximise recycling and energy conservation.

Meteorological Service Singapore

The Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) provides weather information to support public health and socio-economic activities. It also issues haze alerts and provides vital meteorological services to the aviation and maritime communities and the military. MSS is also on tsunami watch as part of a regional network set up after several coastal areas in Asia were devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

Highlights of environmental activities

Dengue fever

Marketing materials distributed to the public on dengue prevention Dengue marketing materials.jpg
Marketing materials distributed to the public on dengue prevention

NEA adopts a multi-pronged approach – which includes surveillance and enforcement, community outreach and education, and research, to tackle vector-borne diseases such as dengue fever. Most recently, it rolled out educational home visits, where NEA officers visit homes in areas where there are less than 10 dengue cases, to educate residents on how to prevent mosquitoes from breeding in their homes. During these visits, the officers will highlight all potential mosquito breeding grounds in that particular home and the corrective measures the resident needs to undertake. No enforcement action will be taken against the resident for any mosquito breeding found on such visits.

This approach has yielded good results, with Singapore successfully avoiding a serious dengue outbreak, as experienced in 2005 when 14,209 people were infected with the fever. From 2007 to 2011, the number of dengue cases were 8,826; 7,031; 4,497; 5,363; and 5,330 respectively.

Public hygiene and cleanliness

NEA plays an important role in overseeing the cleansing of public areas in Singapore. NEA takes a three-pronged approach to keeping our environment clean, which includes: Public Cleansing; Public Education and Enforcement. NEA maintain an effective system of public cleansing to keep Singapore clean and prevent environment-related diseases. The cleansing of public roads and pavements is largely carried out by contractors engaged by the NEA.

The NEA works closely with their "3P Partners" (the people, public and private sectors) to promote anti-littering practices and to encourage members of the community to take ownership of their litter and keep their surroundings clean. Regular checks on food establishments, swimming pools and public toilets are carried out to ensure that a high standard of hygiene is maintained.

Climate change and energy efficiency

In April 2006, Singapore announced accession to the Kyoto Protocol. As a non-Annex I country, Singapore does not have targets set under KP, but it is eligible to participate in carbon credit exchanges arising from approved Clean Development Mechanism projects conducted in the country. The National Environment Agency is the designated authority coordinating CDMs. It is also spearheading ongoing measures to encourage energy efficiency and lower carbon emissions.

In April 2008, NEA launched the 10% Energy Challenge to get households to cut their electricity consumption by at least 10%. As part of this campaign, NEA collaborated with grassroots organizations and charities to train volunteers to conduct energy audits and identify wasteful energy consumption habits.

On 11 September 2009, NEA signed a landmark Voluntary Agreement with 16 major retailers and suppliers, to provide more energy efficient appliances and encourage more Singapore households to purchase them.

Under the Voluntary Agreement, participating retailers and suppliers will voluntarily commit to achieving targets set out by the NEA, including retiring stock of energy inefficient models and introducing more 3- and 4-tick models, so that energy efficient models form at least 50% of their model range after six months, and 60% of their model range after one year. Signatories also voluntarily commit to promote energy efficient appliances, as well as improve the availability and affordability of energy efficient appliances available in their stores.

Waste management

Since independence, Singapore's growing population and economy have resulted in a large increase in solid waste. In 1970, about 1,300 tonnes per day of solid waste were disposed of. This increased to 7,000 tonnes per day by 2006, a six-fold increase from 1970.

To address the solid waste problem, Singapore has put in place an integrated solid waste management system that ensures that all waste that are not recycled, are collected and disposed of safely at waste-to-energy incineration plants or at the offshore sanitary landfill (Semakau Landfill) in the case of non-incinerable waste.

As a result, overall recycling rate has increased from 40% in 2000 to 56% in 2008. Waste growth has also been curtailed. The total waste (domestic and non-domestic) disposed of in 2008 was 7,179 tonnes per day, a 6% reduction as compared to 2000. As a result, the lifespan of Semakau Landfill has increased from 25–30 years to 35–40 years.

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hazardous waste</span> Ignitable, reactive, corrosive and/or toxic unwanted or unusable materials

Hazardous waste is waste that must be handled properly to avoid damaging human health or the environment. Waste can be hazardous because it is toxic, reacts violently with other chemicals, or is corrosive, among other traits. As of 2022, humanity produces 300-500 million metric tons of hazardous waste annually. Some common examples are electronics, batteries, and paints. An important aspect of managing hazardous waste is safe disposal. Hazardous waste can be stored in hazardous waste landfills, burned, or recycled into something new. Managing hazardous waste is important to achieve worldwide sustainability. Hazardous waste is regulated on national scale by national governments as well as on an international scale by the United Nations (UN) and international treaties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sanitation</span> Public health conditions related to clean water and proper excreta and sewage disposal

Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation systems aim to protect human health by providing a clean environment that will stop the transmission of disease, especially through the fecal–oral route. For example, diarrhea, a main cause of malnutrition and stunted growth in children, can be reduced through adequate sanitation. There are many other diseases which are easily transmitted in communities that have low levels of sanitation, such as ascariasis, cholera, hepatitis, polio, schistosomiasis, and trachoma, to name just a few.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waste management</span> Activities and actions required to manage waste from its source to its final disposal

Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment, and disposal of waste, together with monitoring and regulation of the waste management process and waste-related laws, technologies, and economic mechanisms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Industrial waste</span> Waste produced by industrial activity or manufacturing processes

Industrial waste is the waste produced by industrial activity which includes any material that is rendered useless during a manufacturing process such as that of factories, mills, and mining operations. Types of industrial waste include dirt and gravel, masonry and concrete, scrap metal, oil, solvents, chemicals, scrap lumber, even vegetable matter from restaurants. Industrial waste may be solid, semi-solid or liquid in form. It may be hazardous waste or non-hazardous waste. Industrial waste may pollute the nearby soil or adjacent water bodies, and can contaminate groundwater, lakes, streams, rivers or coastal waters. Industrial waste is often mixed into municipal waste, making accurate assessments difficult. An estimate for the US goes as high as 7.6 billion tons of industrial waste produced annually, as of 2017. Most countries have enacted legislation to deal with the problem of industrial waste, but strictness and compliance regimes vary. Enforcement is always an issue.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waste-to-energy plant</span> Building that incinerates unusable garbage

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Municipal solid waste</span> Type of waste consisting of everyday items discarded by the public

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In the 2005 dengue outbreak in Singapore, a significant rise in the number of dengue fever cases was reported in Singapore, becoming the country's worst health crisis since the 2003 SARS epidemic. In October 2005, there were signs that the dengue fever outbreak had peaked, as the number of weekly cases had declined and the outbreak of this infectious disease declined by the end of 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Landfill diversion</span>

Waste diversion or landfill diversion is the process of diverting waste from landfills. The success of landfill diversion can be measured by comparison of the size of the landfill from one year to the next. If the landfill grows minimally or remains the same, then policies covering landfill diversion are successful. For example, currently in the United States there are 3000 landfills. A measure of the success of landfill diversion would be if that number remains the same or is reduced. In 2015 it was recorded that the national average of landfill diversion in the United States was 33.8%, while San Francisco had implemented the most effective policies and had recorded a landfill diversion rate of 77%.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biomedical waste</span> Waste containing infectious material

Biomedical waste or hospital waste is any kind of waste containing infectious materials generated during the treatment of humans or animals as well as during research involving biologics. It may also include waste associated with the generation of biomedical waste that visually appears to be of medical or laboratory origin, as well research laboratory waste containing biomolecules or organisms that are mainly restricted from environmental release. As detailed below, discarded sharps are considered biomedical waste whether they are contaminated or not, due to the possibility of being contaminated with blood and their propensity to cause injury when not properly contained and disposed. Biomedical waste is a type of biowaste.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waste</span> Unwanted or unusable materials

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Landfills in the United States</span> American landfills

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waste in the United Kingdom</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waste management in South Korea</span>

Waste management in South Korea involves waste generation reduction and ensuring maximum recycling of the waste. This includes the appropriate treatment, transport, and disposal of the collected waste. South Korea's Waste Management Law was established in 1986, replacing the Environmental Protection Law (1963) and the Filth and Cleaning Law (1973). This new law aimed to reduce general waste under the waste hierarchy in South Korea. This Waste Management Law imposed a volume-based waste fee system, effective for waste produced by both household and industrial activities.

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References

  1. Pang, Joy Minle (18 March 2019). "NEA appoints new chairman Lee Chuan Seng to succeed Liak Teng Lit". The Straits Times. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  2. "Appointment of New Chief Executive Officer for the National Environment Agency". MSE. 17 February 2022. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  3. "New stat board to oversee food safety and security; AVA to be disbanded - CNA". Channelnewsasia.com. Retrieved 9 April 2019.