Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis (Sengkang): Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Like Member Ms Yeo Wan Ling, I also received similar feedback from some residents on the increasing prevalence of mosquitoes, which I presumed is due to the release of these male Wolbachia mosquitoes. My supplementary question is on how much the Ministry believes in the importance of support from all MPs in the community engagement efforts.
And I ask this because I received an email from NEA earlier in March, in terms of support for the publicity of Project Wolbachia, in terms of the engagement of residents. But while I attended such an online zoom session in March, I thought it was also important to gain a firsthand understanding, hence requested to actually participate in some of these study sites and release activities. But I only learnt last week that these community engagement efforts are conducted only through People’s Association (PA) and I was not able to participate.
Mr Baey Yam Keng: NEA works with the community and grassroots to carry out these outreach programmes, as with all the various Government initiatives. In addition to that, particularly for Project Wolbachia, we work directly with the various Town Councils on operational issues, and the Town Councils also maintain the general cleanliness of the estate and to reduce mosquito breeding grounds. We will continue to work on both fronts.
Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment
5 October 2022
https://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/#/sprs3topic?reportid=oral-answer-2911
Office of the Leader of the Opposition 