Residents may end up paying more in S&C charges if
high-rise littering worsens
SINGAPORE : Residents may end up paying more in service
and conservancy charges if the problem of high-rise littering gets
worse.
This possibility was raised by Parliamentary Secretary for
National Development Dr Maliki Osman when he launched an
anti-litter initiative in Admiralty on Sunday.
Grassroots organisations will be using community pressure,
like roping in residents to keep a lookout for those who litter
from their flats.
The number of complaints against high-rise littering
island-wide has been increasing over the last few years.
In 2008, there were 2,499 complaints.
This jumped to 3,474 complaints last year.
In the first half of this year, there have been 1,965
complaints.
Dr Maliki said: "When we have a littering problem and we
have a cleanliness problem, the conservancy costs will go up
because the workers will have to come in more regularly.
"That would increase the cost because from a normal
cleaning situation where you just clean the common corridors and
the lift lobbies, now you have to go into the individual households
to try and clean it.
"This is unnecessary for the residents because the higher
the cost, it will be transferred to the residents. We do not want
that to happen.
"We want them to try and minimise the need for them to pay
extra just because of irresponsible behaviour. At this point in
time, we have not raised the conservancy charges at all because we
have been able to manage, but I think we can continue to contain it
even better if residents take responsibility.
"The chances of increasing costs will be there if we do
not contain this, because the idea is to look at the natural
situation where previously you will not need workers to go into
individual households.
"Now, (in) one HDB block, you have an average of 100
units. Just imagine if half of that required cleaning. The costs
will tremendously increase.
"If we do not need that, then we can actually reduce the
cost and maintain the cleanliness at the common corridors spaces
and common area, and we really do not need to increase costs if
everybody is responsible." - CNA/ms
