The National Environment Agency (NEA) has identified the person who was photographed defecating outside Holland Village MRT station last month as a 34-year old Singaporean female with a long history of schizophrenia and intellectual disability.
The photos of the act was shared online via various platforms, spurring negative online reactions to the act and comments suggesting that the suspect is likely to be a non-Singaporean.
NEA has been reported to state that it has issued a stern warning to the woman in view of the circumstances and asked members of the public to report details if they witness such offences.
NEA contrasted the statistics of 528 enforcement actions against such offenders between January and July this year as compared to 989 in the same period last year, and 1,566 in 2012 and said that it has seen fewer offences related to public urination and defecation in the past few years despite of having stepped up its enforcement against public health offences
Since May last year, the NEA has increased its enforcement hours by about 50 per cent to 35,000 man hours a month.
The said offence is governed under the Environmental Public Health (Public Cleansing) Regulations,
Section 15 (1) – No person shall urinate or defecate in or upon any street, arcade, vacant land, river, canal, ditch, drain or watercourse or in any place to which the public has access except in any sanitary convenience provided for such purpose.
The woman could have been liable on conviction for a first offence, to a fine not exceeding $1,000 and to a further fine not exceeding $100 for every day or part thereof during which the offence continues after conviction.
