Community pressure, neighbourhood watch style, will be used to curb high rise littering in Sembawang GRC in a newly launched effort by the National Environment Agency’s North West Regional Office (NWRO), Sembawang Town Council (SBTC) and Admiralty Grassroots Organisations, It aims to harness community pressure and support against errant high-rise litterbugs.

Whenever cases of high-rise littering are reported, grassroots leaders living in the block or at adjacent blocks and officers from NWRO and SBTC will conduct house visits at the affected block to serve an advisory to all households. The advisory will request for information such as the time of the offence, the frequency of the high rise littering problems and items thrown. Residents will also be asked to be on alert, help look out for the culprit and keep the authorities updated.

Those living in the opposite block will be roped in as often times it is easier for them to pinpoint the unit where the litter was thrown out from. 

Admiralty Constituency will be the first to launch the programme. Over 300 grassroots leaders from Admiralty have been recruited for the effort so far. The rest of the constituencies Canberra, Chong Pang, Marsiling, Sembawang, Woodlands, Nee Soon Central, Nee Soon East will come on board by the end of the year.

Joint stake-outs will continue to be conducted by NEA and the Sembawang Town Council to apprehend the culprits behind high rise litter. The information gathered from the community through the neighbor watch groups will help such stakeouts which last about 4 hours.

We hope that with community pressure, the minority who high-rise litter would think twice about throwing their unwanted items out of their window. Instead they should inculcate the good behaviour of bagging their rubbish and throwing them down the refuse chute.