By AUDREY TAN

THE kampung spirit came aliveyesterday when 350 people gath-ered for a durian feast at TelokAyer Hong Lim Green Communi-ty Centre in Clarke Quay.

Many of them started off asstrangers but eventually bondedover their common love for theking of fruit, and the laughterand conversation grew.

During the four-hour event,which started at 7pm, dozens ofthorny husks were cracked opento reveal rows of the creamyflesh, which were passed aroundfor everyone’s enjoyment.

The durian feast, called Duri-an Mobilization 2014 and now inits second year, was organised byDr Leslie Tay, a popular foodblogger who runs the websiteieatishootipost.sg, and the Singa-pore Kindness Movement (SKM).

It aims to give participants thechance to socialise over durians,and get a taste of the kampungspirit that thrived in old Singa-pore.

To add to the communal vibe,participants sat cross-legged, oron small stools, on picnic matsand newspapers laid out on theground.

Participant Desmond Lee, 46,an outdoor sales executive, saidhe enjoyed himself as feasting onhis favourite fruit with other duri-an lovers was a better experiencethan eating them at home.

Another perk, he said, was thegood quality of the durians of-fered during the event.

“I eat durians almost everyweek, and I would say the duri-ans I had here were close to per-fect.”

About one tonne of Mao ShanWang and D24 durians – premi-um varieties of the fruit – wasprepared for the event.

Dr Tay said they were fresh –they dropped to the ground only

yesterday morning – and werebrought in from Pahang, Malay-sia, just before the event.

For $38 each, participantsenjoyed about 2kg to 3kg of thefruit. A portion of the proceedswill cover the cost of the durians,with the rest going to charity.

The two beneficiaries areGoducate, an international non-profit organisation which pro-vides education for needy chil-dren, and the Prison Fellowship

Singapore, a charity that runsprogrammes to help prisoners,former offenders and their fami-lies.

Said Dr William Wan, generalsecretary of the SKM: “Food is anatural conversation starter formost locals... Apart from enjoy-ing the delicacies, the momentswhere people can share a laughand learn more about each otherare also very precious.”

audreyt@sph.com.sg

By FENG ZENGKUNENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT

SINGAPORE is embarking on anambitious project to develop atechnology road map that canhelp it deal with its rubbish, allthe way till 2050.

The National EnvironmentAgency (NEA) recently called forproposals to review how the coun-try collects, sorts, separates, recy-cles and treats its waste.

The consultancy firm that is se-lected must also look to othercountries to see how those pro-

cesses can be improved.The study is expected to pro-

duce “a clear and realistic 2030 vi-sion and an ambitious 2050 visionof a sustainable waste manage-ment system, given Singapore’sconstraints and challenges”, saidthe NEA in tender documents.

The NEA received submissionsfrom eight firms by its July 18deadline and is reviewing them.

The project is expected to startby September and last eightmonths.

A comprehensive plan will becritical in dealing with Singa-

pore’s ballooning waste matter.With the population and economygrowing, the country is expectedto produce 12.3 million tonnes ofrubbish in 2030, up 57 per centfrom last year.

The agency noted several areaswhich can be improved, includingin the sorting of waste.

“Most of the local materials re-covery facilities are small-scaleoperations where sorting pro-cesses are performed manually,”it said in the document, addingthat this is both expensive andtime-consuming.

It wants the consultant to lookfor and assess state-of-the-arttechnologies, including auto-sort-ing machines, that can dramatical-ly boost the plants’ manpower pro-ductivity.

There should also be recom-mendations to help people sepa-rate their dry and wet waste moreeasily, to meet the 2030 targetthat 70 per cent of all rubbishshould be recycled.

The NEA noted that most ofthe current waste collection equip-ment and facilities, such as the sin-gle steam chute system in most

high-rise flats, do not allow differ-ent types of waste to be storedand collected separately.

Ms Melissa Tan, chairman ofthe Waste Management and Recy-cling Association of Singapore,said its members had been consult-ed on the targets.

She added that the targets canbe met if the Government is pre-pared to help by investing in tech-nology.

“There are very mature wastesorting and separating technolo-gies in Europe,” she said.

“It would be easy to transfer

the technology and knowledge toSingapore, but the machines arevery costly. Firms here may nothave the deep pockets to getthem.”

One way to solve this, she sug-gested, would be for the Govern-ment to invest in an advanced,centralised sorting facility andcharge firms to use it.

“Singapore’s waste manage-ment has already improved a lotsince the 1970s and 1980s and,with technology, it can improvefurther,” she added.

zengkun@sph.com.sg

A total of 350 people gathered for Durian Mobilization 2014 at Telok Ayer Hong Lim Green Community Centre yesterday.

By LIM YAN LIANG

SINGAPORE will lead a new anti-drug conference for Asian cities inAugust next year in a bid to rallysupport for its zero-tolerancestance towards drugs, said theNational Council Against DrugAbuse (NCADA).

The move is aimed at pushingback the momentum of drug liber-alisation policies that more coun-tries and cities have adopted inrecent years, council chairmanVictor Lye told The Straits Times.

The NCADA-led event willcome ahead of the United NationsGeneral Assembly Special Session(Ungass) on Drugs in 2016. May-ors, officials and non-governmen-tal organisations from cities likeBangkok and Manila can be expect-ed to meet to discuss their respec-tive drug situations and find com-mon ground, said Mr Lye.

The council hopes to gatherlike-minded governments againstwhat Mr Lye calls “sophisticatedand well-organised commercial in-terests”.

The overarching goal of theconference that NCADA is plan-ning to organise would be to forma unified Asian stance in supportof drug prohibition, said Mr Lye.

A worldwide anti-drug coali-tion will be a necessity whenUngass sits in 2016, given thestrides that a well-financed pro-drug lobby have made, he said, cit-ing examples such as the UnitedStates, which now has 23 statesthat allow the medical use of mari-juana.

The UN General Assembly willmeet in 2016 after the presidentsof Colombia, Guatemala and Mexi-co formally requested in 2012 thatit organise a conference on drugpolicy reform. A resolution to-wards this conference – spon-sored by Mexico – was later co-sponsored by 95 other countries.

While the UN’s position in1998, and as recent as 2009, wasto achieve the goal of a drug-freeworld, it admitted in a joint minis-terial statement in March thatboth the smuggling of precursorchemicals used in making synthet-

ic drugs and the illicit growing ofdrugs like opium poppy continueto be “major challenges”.

A leaked draft of the statementlate last year showed there wasdeep disagreement over the long-term direction that world drug pol-icy should take, with many SouthAmerican countries wanting tomove away from prohibition to ex-plore alternate drug policies,while Norway pushed for discus-sion on drug decriminalisation.

This means the 2016 sessionwill likely be a key battlegroundthat decides world drug policymoving forward, said Mr Lye.

“The pro-drug lobby knowsthat this is their window, in 2016,to try again, after failing in 2008to push through a UN charter thatwill say yes to regulation and de-criminalisation of drugs,” he said,adding that medical marijuana,for example, is a Trojan horseused as the first step in the fightfor legalisation of illegal drugs.

This view is shared by anti-drug experts, who said they are in-creasingly fighting against thetide when it comes to public per-ception on the drug.

“As many Americans and otherpopulations of the world havelearnt to expect easy, medicinalsolutions to complex problems,the prescription drug and medicalmarijuana industries havegrown,” said Professor Mina Sein-feld de Carakushansky, presidentof a Brazil-based non-governmen-tal organisation and the formerhead of Rio de Janeiro’s Drug Pre-vention Bureau.

Mr Lye warned that should theUN adopt a softer position ondrug control, it would becomedifficult for Singapore’s currentanti-drug policies to be effective.

“We can maintain our owndrug policies but... can you imag-ine if you can cross to some othercountry on a few hours’ flight andhave a drug party without beingcaught?” he asked.

“If we don’t fight for our inter-ests, very soon our children are go-ing to have drugs available in ourbackyard here – legally.”

yanliang@sph.com.sg

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There was laughter and conversation as people bonded over their common love for the durian during the four-hour event in Clarke Quay. ST PHOTOS: DESMOND WEE

Plan for technology road map to tackle rubbish till 2050

Move aimed at curbing momentumof recent drug liberalisation policies

King of fruit gives a taste of kampung spirit

S’pore leadingAsian meet tostand unitedagainst drugs

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