PM Lee Hsien Loong at Clean & Green Singapore Carnival 2016

Friends and residents, 

Very happy to join you this morning, beautiful weather, no rain no sunshine, to launch the Clean & Green Singapore Carnival. I make it a point to join you at this event every year because it is an important event which reminds us to keep Singapore clean and green, and to never take it for granted.

Getting to where we are today took a lot of effort. We had to improve our sanitation, our waste management, our public health. We had to clean up our rivers and water bodies. We had to plant trees and greenery all over the island, change the social habits of millions of Singaporeans. So today, we can be proud of the home that we have built for us all – with more than 500 public parks and 1,000 community gardens all over the island. We have 300 km of park connectors and 32 Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters projects

We also have the “Kampung Spirit” in our people, exemplified by the volunteers of the Community in Bloom gardening movement. And every year, some of them receive awards. And every year, I see some of their works. And it is impressive how much effort they put in, how much pride, in the little gardens which they cultivate and nurture with tender loving care. For example, Mr Joel Lee, who is receiving a Community in Bloom award this year. He helps out at several community gardens. Joel, congratulations. And he also conducts training at the Association of Special Needs to help their members get jobs in the horticulture industry. 

We have to keep up this clean and green effort. That is why we plant trees at this event every year. Not only do they improve our living environment but they carry a deeper meaning. The Chinese saying says “前人种树, 后人乘凉” – one generation plants the trees, the later generations enjoy the shade. And it reminds us of our responsibility to build a better Singapore for our children. So today we planted a Keruing Belimbing tree – looks small but it will grow and in 40, 50 years’ time, it will be 50 metres tall. I hope it will still be standing here at the same spot and our children and grandchildren will enjoy the shade.

The next stage on our clean and green journey is sustainability. Small country, small island, we are always constrained – not enough land, limited natural resources. And with climate change, our environmental challenges are growing. Temperatures are rising. Droughts and water shortages are more common. Linggiu Reservoir in Johor which supplies water to Singapore is very dry – right now less than one quarter full, only 22 per cent and that slightly improved because it rained last week and I hope it rains this week in Johor again too.

Mosquito-borne diseases are spreading – Dengue. I came here, my phone said “beep beep”. When I looked at it, it said “you are near one dengue cluster”. I checked up a red cluster nearby. And dengue is not the only disease, you also have Zika which is now in Singapore. We are fighting it. We have to keep it down and I am glad that with the cooperation of Singaporeans, we closed our Zika clusters that we knew about quickly.

To make our city sustainable, we have got to get everybody to do our part. The Government is investing in energy efficiency in order to meet our targets in the Climate Action Plan which we announced this year – to reduce carbon emissions intensity by 36 per cent, which means for every dollar of GDP which we produce, we consume about one-third less carbon that we used to do.

We are also building our sustainable infrastructure, like the fifth NEWater plant which will be completed by end of this year, and three more desalination plants by 2020 to increase our water supply and make it more reliable. And we are setting aside land for green and blue spaces for everybody to enjoy. But sustainability also depends on each one of us – how we live our daily lives, how we adjust our habits to be greener. For example, reducing waste, saving water, driving less, embracing technology that makes our home and workplaces more eco-friendly 

And we can also participate in many environmental programmes. Like in the North West District, there are 80 such programmes that actively involve volunteers. And I would like to congratulate North West District for once again winning the Clean & Green Singapore Best Community Achievement Award! Well done to the Mayor and to all the North West District advisors and grassroots leaders and residents. It is getting a bit boring but every year we see them back again. 

I am encouraged that many passionate individuals and interest groups are going the extra mile. Like Mdm Lalithama Nair who is a Woodlands Environment Champion. She promotes the love for environment among young people. She conducts free gardening programmes for children. She mentors teenagers on sustainable living and how to start green initiatives that benefit the community. Or the project called Repair Kopitiam. It was started by Mr Veerappan Swaminathan and Ms Farah Sanwari to challenge the “throwaway” culture in Singapore, to encourage people to go beyond recycling, repair items that can still be used through workshops, and also conducts dialogues to get participants to think about a sustainable future.

Their examples reflect the theme of our carnival this year, which is “Caring for our Environment Together”. So if we work together, through our collective efforts, we can create a cleaner, greener, more sustainable home for ourselves and children for a long time more to come

Thank you very much!

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