Three new hawker centres to open in Anchorvale, Woodleigh and Punggol, as MSE promotes 'Year of Public Hygiene'
Public Toilets Taskforce and more CCTVs to be set up in order to tackle unhygienic public toilets, public cleanliness and rat issues
SINGAPORE — Three new hawker centres will open this year in Anchorvale, Woodleigh and Punggol, said the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE) and the National Environment Agency (NEA) in a joint media factsheet issued on Monday (4 March).
Anchorvale Village Hawker Centre, located at 339 Anchorvale Road, will have 36 cooked food stalls and 650 seats, while Woodleigh Village Hawker Centre, located at Block 202C Woodleigh Link, will have 39 cooked food stalls and over 700 seats. Both centres are tentatively scheduled to open in the middle of this year.
The third hawker centre – Punggol Coast Hawker Centre – is set to open in the second half of the year. It will be located at 84 Punggol Way, and have 40 cooked food stalls and over 680 seats.
The three hawker centres will have a variety of affordable food options, and patrons can enjoy a comfortable dining environment, with features like high ceilings for good natural ventilation and spacious seating areas.
Meanwhile, 18 hawker centres will undergo repairs and redecoration (R&R) work this year. The list of hawker centres to undergo R&R will be published on NEA's website at least a month before work commences.
"Periodic restoration of hawker centres are carried out every six to eight years to keep them in a good physical condition, so that we can provide a pleasant dining environment for patrons," MSE said.
New task force to improve cleanliness of public toilets
MSE also announced during Monday's Committee of Supply budget debate in Parliament that it has designated 2024 as the "Year of Public Hygiene", and it will be reinforcing high standards of public hygiene through various initiatives.
A Public Toilets Taskforce will be set up to review ways to improve the cleanliness of public toilets, particularly at coffeeshops and hawker centres. It will also develop measures to improve the hygiene standards for all public toilets, like infrastructure, cleaning and public education.
NEA and the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) will also heighten enforcement on toilet cleanliness and ensure operators "take responsibility and maintain toilets properly". Last year, close to 240 public toilet-related enforcement actions were taken against premises owners and managers.
New performance benchmark and surveillance cameras to counter rat issues
NEA and SFA will also increase enforcement of waste management at food premises and bin centres to counter rat issues. Surveillance cameras with thermal detection capabilities will be trialed at outdoor and back-lane areas, to help with investigations and enforce against culprits of improper waste disposal.
Additionally, NEA and Enterprise Singapore are also working with the Singapore Pest Management Association to develop a new Singapore Standard performance measurement for pest management services.
Five new sites will also be added to Project Wolbachia by the first quarter to counter the rising number of dengue cases. They are Bukit Merah-Telok Blangah, Clementi-West Coast, Commonwealth, Holland, and Marine Parade-Mountbatten.
The new sites will bump the total coverage to 480,000 households this year, a 9 per cent increase from 350,000 households covered last year.
More blitzes and CCTVs to maintain clean public spaces
To maintain clean public spaces, NEA will conduct more blitzes at larger-scale cleanliness hotspots with higher visibility. Last year, 21 blitzes were conducted, and the agency plans to conduct more than 100 blitzes this year.
It will deploy both uniformed and non-uniformed officers in these blitzes. Standees will be placed to remind the public that the area is under active surveillance and under enforcement actions. Corrective Work Orders will also be conducted at these hotspots.
Furthermore, CCTV deployments will be quadrupled, rising from around 250 per year to 1,000 per year. This will help improve NEA’s remote surveillance capabilities to enable investigations into public health offences, and deter would-be offenders.
The agency will also explore putting up images of unresolved acts of littering in community spaces in areas where the act of littering was committed, and seek the community’s assistance to identify offenders.
"Identified offenders may be fined or charged in court. Care will be exercised in investigating cases committed by young children, the elderly, and vulnerable groups," it said.
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