Straits Times : New statutory board to tackle green issues

JUN 30, 2002

New statutory board to tackle green issues

National Environment Agency will handle almost all functions of the Environment Ministry, short of setting policies

FROM tomorrow, most matters green and clean will come under the new National Environment Agency.

Services to be handled by the new agency

THE new National Environment Agency (NEA) will implement and operate environmental policies while its parent body, the Environment Ministry, will concentrate on long-term policy directions.

The following areas will, from July 1, be handled by the NEA:

Pollution control, use of clean energy, environment noise management, waste management and disposal, reducing waste, meteorological services, tenders and contracts, licences and permits, public education campaigns, Clean & Green Week, recycling initiatives, public health management, disease surveillance and control, hawker centre programmes and public cleaning.

The agency will manage such things as pollution, noise and recycling, as well as public-health issues like dengue-fever cases and the crow population. It will also take charge of waste management, public cleaning and the upgrading of hawker centres and public toilets.

The agency, the Environment Ministry's (ENV) new statutory board, will take over almost all the operations of ENV, short of setting national policies.

It will also have one new arm - the Meteorological Services Division, which used to be part of the Transport Ministry.

The agency will be sited at the Environment Building in Scotts Road, but its launch yesterday took place at Lower Peirce Reservoir Park.

Environment Minister Lim Swee Say said that by splitting the functions of ENV, the ministry could provide faster and more effective responses to environmental challenges.

'ENV will spend more time looking at long-term policy issues,' he said.

But restructuring did not mean retrenchment, because while people would be redeployed, they would not lose their jobs.

Mr Lim added that a key function of the agency would be to nurture the growing environmental sector here.

This would mean working closely with the private sector and developing new and better environmental products, which could then be exported.

He said: 'In terms of safe drinking water, solid waste management, clean energy - we believe all these could be areas where there could be demand beyond Singapore.'

The move to create a new body to handle daily operations, so that a lean ministry could focus on environmental sustainability, has been on the cards for at least a year.

Last October, as Acting Environment Minister, Mr Lim told The Straits Times: 'If we don't focus on the short term, then we will have all fires getting out of control. If we don't focus on the long term, there will always be fires in the short term.'

To lead the team that will deal with the short-term fires, he chose two people from outside his ministry - Brigadier-General (NS) Lam Joon Khoi, 44, and former Nominated MP Simon Tay, 41.

BG Lam, who is the agency's chief executive officer, was a military man for 21 years before he returned to the Administrative Service. He has previously worked in the Education and Finance ministries.

BG Lam said that his skills in organisation and in financial management would stand him in good stead in leading the 3,000-strong agency.

Mr Simon Tay, a long-time advocate for the environment, will be chairman of the board.

He said: 'I have always loved the environment. As an NMP for four years, I probably spoke more about the environment and nature than anybody else, except, perhaps, the minister.'

Mr Tay, who teaches law at the National University of Singapore, said of his new post: 'I am humbled by it because I have never been a part of the Government.'