Singapore's cleanliness obsession<\/p>\n
Since the outbreak of SARS in 2003, personal and environmental
\nhygiene has become an even more serious issue in an already
\ncleanliness-conscious Singapore. The country, long-known for its
\ntough penalties on littering, chewing gum and spitting in public,
\nis now getting tougher on public toilet contractors and food
\nstall owners. This is the last in a series of five articles
\nprepared by The Jakarta Post's Damar Harsanto who took a look at
\nthe city-state's most recent sanitation drive following his visit
\nto the country at the invitation of Far East Organization Ltd.<\/p>\n
\"Sorry, sir, just wait a minute. I'm still cleaning the
\ntoilet,\" a woman cleaner in her 50s at the Harbour Front Mass
\nRapid Transit Station, told The Jakarta Post, whose
\nrepresentative was waiting to use the toilet.<\/p>\n
A notice board on the men's room door notified would-be users
\nabout the cleaning times, four sessions a day.<\/p>\n
The free public toilets also have a notice with the cell phone
\nnumber to call a \"Mr. Latiff\" -- but it's not for a good time.
\nLatiff is the station employee in charge of cleanliness, who
\ncustomers can contact with their comments about the loos --
\nsomething completely foreign to Jakarta's smelly pay-per-loo
\npublic restrooms where many people wishing to spend a penny have
\nto do just that, forking out between Rp 500 and Rp 2,000.<\/p>\n
In Singapore, unlike Jakarta, regulations exist and they are
\nfollowed; they also keep the cleaners busy. An advisory to public
\ntoilet proprietors provided by the National Environment Agency
\nrequires restrooms at small business premises to be cleaned at
\nleast once a day, loos in condominiums twice, and four times
\nduring weekends.<\/p>\n
Receptacles around street-stalls, meanwhile, require cleaning
\nevery 30 minutes during peak hours. With an estimated 40,000
\npublic toilets in the city, that is a lot of work, and 10,000
\ncleaners are employed in the city each day.<\/p>\n
Keeping eating places hygienic is another of the government's
\nmain battlegrounds.<\/p>\n
The Post observed that most food centers or hawker stalls in
\nthe central city were clean and tidy -- the Newton Food Center
\nnear the Newton MRT station and the Harbor Front Food Center the
\nobvious stand-outs.<\/p>\n
Most cooks were seen also regularly donning aprons and plastic
\ngloves when preparing food.<\/p>\n
The National Environment Agency requires cooks to keep their
\nfingernails short, avoid sneezing or coughing near food, and
\nadvises against any hand contact with the eyes, nose, ears,
\nmouth, hair or skin when handling food. Sick kitchen staff are a
\ncomplete no-no.<\/p>\n
The concern for environmental and personal hygienic reached
\nnew heights in Singapore the aftermath of the SARS outbreak,
\nwhich killed 31 residents during the first three months and hit
\ntourism hard.<\/p>\n
To stop such an outbreak from occurring again, the government
\nis focussing its campaign on the grubby Singaporeans -- the 3 to
\n5 percent of the 4.2 million population it estimates whose lax
\npersonal or public hygiene puts the rest of the island at risk.<\/p>\n
The government says that between 120,000 and 200,000
\nSingaporeans regularly despoil their environment; throwing things
\nout of apartment windows, littering, expectorating on the street
\nand even urinating in lifts or stairways.<\/p>\n
The government believes that some 3 to 5 percent of
\nthe city state's population of 4.2 million do not observe good
\npersonal hygiene nor cleanliness in public places.
\nThis puts the health of the entire population at risk.<\/p>\n
To clean up after the 120,000 to 200,000 Singaporeans who are
\nsaid to have such bad habits as throwing rubbish out of their
\napartment windows, littering in public places or spitting or
\nurinating in lifts or stairways, the government employs a
\nbattalion of about 10,000 cleaners, both in the public and
\nprivate sectors, every day.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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