Rated Among The Cleanest Cities In The World, Singapore’s PM Lee Hsien Loong Lauds ‘Swachh Bharat’ On Gandhi Jayanti

Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong has lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Clean India programme in an op-ed.

Loong wrote the op-ed in conjunction with the Mahatma Gandhi International Sanitation Convention held in New Delhi from 29 September to 2 October.

The PM of Singapore said that India has achieved great success in last four years by building more than 86 million toilets under Prime Minister Modi’s Clean India programme.

“Over the last four years, India has made great progress, building more than 86 million toilets for households, and declaring nearly half a million (470,000) villages free of open defecation.”

Loong said that Singapore too has gone through this phase when many homes in the country were not sewered and human waste had to be, often, dumped into the rivers and other water sources resulting in many waterborne diseases.

He further wrote that the founding fathers of Singapore acted decisively and started a campaign for cleaning Singapore.

“Our founding fathers resolved to act decisively. They launched a national campaign to "Keep Singapore Clean". We sewered up every home, cleaned up our rivers and made Singapore a clean and green city. In particular, we cleaned up the Singapore River.” Loong wrote.

Loong added that both the countries are on a vastly different scale but there are parallels in sanitation journeys of both the countries.

He also hailed the vision and leadership of Prime Minister Modi to keep India clean and green and compared him to the former prime minister of the country Lee Kuan Yew.

“Both countries' experiences demonstrate the importance of vision and leadership. The late prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and Prime Minister Modi both made it a priority to keep the country clean and green. They personally led public campaigns to raise awareness and mobilise the masses. Both picked up brooms and joined the people to clean the streets.” Said the Singapore PM.

He also emphasised on the need of having a long term national commitment to achieve goals of cleaning the country and its resources.

Citing Global Baseline Report of UNICEF, he said that that Swachh Bharat Mission has shown promising results as all schools in India have built sanitation facilites in 2018 compared to only 50 per cent having them in 2006.

“In India, the nationwide push to implement the Swachh Bharat Mission with key stakeholders, such as industry and schools, has shown promising results. The 2018 Unicef Drinking Water, Sanitation And Hygiene In Schools: Global Baseline Report highlighted that almost all schools in India have sanitation facilities built, compared with just 50 per cent of schools in 2006.” said Loong.

Singapore PM said that his country is ready to share its experiences with India in its journey of development and is looking forward to cooperate with various Indian states in developing their cities.