Corrective Work Order (CWO) is an amendment to the anti-littering law which came into effect on 1 November 1992. The CWO was a new punitive measure that, instead of requiring a hefty fine, set the offender to work in cleaning up the community. The first CWO was performed on 21 February 1993 at public places such as parks and beaches. On 19 July 1993, the CWO was conducted at Housing & Development Board (HDB) estates to bring the lesson closer to home.
Description
Singapore has long been known as a clean and green city. Cleanliness of the environment is one of the nation's top priorities after defence and economic development. Anti-littering laws with fines as penalties and Keep Singapore Clean campaigns have helped reduce land pollution. However, litter has never been totally eradicated due to the thoughtlessness of litterbugs. An amendment to littering laws was made in 1992 such that offenders could be tasked to clean up public places instead of having to pay fines. Thus on 1 November 1992, the Environment Public Health (Ammendment) Bill took effect. The law applies to those above 16 years old, are repeat offenders and / or have committed serious littering offences.
Offenders would be issued Corrective Work Order (CWO) notices to clean up public places under the supervision of health inspectors. They would have to report to their CWO officers on an appointed Sunday and clean up public places such as parks and beaches for a duration of one to three hours. Corrective Work Orders (CWOs) in which a convicted person undergoes community service for a stipulated amount of time have been implemented in other countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom.
Convicted litterbugs in Singapore performed the first CWOs on 21 February 1993. They were ordered to clean up public places such parks and beaches, including East Coast Park, Changi Beach Park and Marina Promenade Park.
On 19 July 1993, CWOs were carried out for the first time in at HDB estates. This was in response to a suggestion by Tanjong Pagar Town Council which noted that going to the park or beach was not a daily occurrence for many, and that offenders often littered their own housing estates. Cleaning up housing estates was a means of increasing offenders' awareness of the impact of their littering and the difficulties and trouble that hired cleaners experienced.
Previously, all four CWO sessions were carried out only at parks and beaches. On that Sunday morning, a group of 10 offenders performed their hour-long CWO sentence in Redhill/ Tiong Bahru housing estate, which was under Tanjong Pagar's Town Council. Most of the offenders, non-residents of Tiong Bahru, were convicted for leaving drink cans or newspapers behind.
Author
Nureza Ahmad
References
Public clean-ups have deterred litterbugs. (1994, February 13). The Straits Times, p. 14.
Singapore's tough new anti-litter laws. (1992, November 2). The New Straits Times, p. 23.
S'pore litterbugs must clean up their act. (1992, November 2). The Star, p. 22.
25 years of anti-littering effort. (1995, July 9). The Straits Times.
Yeo, H. Y. (1993, July 19). Litterbugs made to clean up housing estate for first time. The Straits Times, p. 20.
The information in this article is valid as at 2004 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.
