What price a clean and green city?

The green message must be taken to a new generation of Singaporeans every year, says BG Lee, as ministers and MPs launch the Clean and Green Week

By SALMA KHALIK and K.C. VIJAYAN

NEW trees and shrubs added several shades of welcome green to the Singapore landscape yesterday 1 as ministers and MPs did some spade-work to launch this year's Clean and Green Week.

This will be the 11th such annual campaign which is an expansion of the tree-planting drive started in 1971.

More than 1,100 trees, plants and shrubs will be planted this week.

Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the campaigns over the decades had made a difference in Singapore. Caring for the environment was not something that came instinctively.

""These are things which take many years to build up -- keeping the neighbourhood clean, looking after the public areas, looking after the environment. And, every year, you must bring the message to a new generation of Singaporeans,'' he said.

Brigadier-General (NS) Lee was speaking to reporters at Ang Mo Kio yesterday, where he planted a Xanthestemon Chrysanthus plant in a garden which has been adopted by Mayflower Primary School.

He had launched the 11th Clean and Green Week at Jurong earlier in the morning. At the launch, Acting Minister for the Environment, Mr Lim Swee Say, said keeping the country clean and green does not come easy or cheap.

Singapore spends $120 million a year keeping the country clean, $80 million keeping it green, and $200 million controlling pollution and managing waste.

There is also an intangible cost, he said. That is Singapore's reputation for being a ""Fine City'', or one that uses fines as a tool. Today, the country is faced with three choices -- spending even more, imposing heavier fines, or getting the community to participate.

Mr Lim said: ""If every Singaporean takes pride in this beautiful nation of ours and plays a part in keeping it clean and green, I am sure we will be able to achieve much more with less in the years ahead.''

Many Singaporeans are already actively doing their part. The Singapore Environment Council has 500 ""Green'' volunteers while the Waterways Watch Society patrol both the Singapore and Kallang rivers every weekend, he said.

In the same vein, BG Lee said Singapore has many green areas and nature reserves, but the greening and cleanliness of the country cannot be ensured just by the Government alone.

He said: ""If you walk along the corridors you will see people have little potted plants and they take pride in it. So why not do it collectively and not alone.''

Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who planted a Brazilian Ironbark at Everton Park yesterday, said he has been planting trees for so many years, he has lost count of the number he has planted.