VIGILANT AGAINST MOZZIE BREEDING: National Environment Agency chairman Simon Tay inspecting the roof of a shophouse during a visit to Little India. -- ST PHOTO: LIM WUI LIANG

Over the last 10 days, 340 shophouse owners in Little India - the centre of an outbreak of the dengue-like disease - have been told to remove the damaged or clogged gutters on their roofs.

The gutters can collect rain water and become a breeding ground for the Aedes mosquito, which transmits chikungunya and dengue.

So far, 180 shopowners have dismantled their gutters, while eight others were fined $2,000 each for refusing to comply, said the National Environment Agency (NEA).

The rest have asked for more time, citing difficulties in finding workers during the Chinese New Year season, NEA chairman Simon Tay said yesterday.

During a visit to Little India, Associate Professor Tay said most of the shopkeepers were cooperative, as they realise 'the reputation of Little India is at stake', and the outbreak is affecting their businesses.

'We need that kind of ownership. We cannot inspect every single house, we really have to work with them to make sure that their housekeeping is better,' he added.

Shopowners who ignore clean-up orders can be fined up to $20,000, or jailed for up to three months.

Singapore is in the midst of its first outbreak of chikungunya, a viral disease that causes symptoms similar to dengue, such as fever and joint pains.

Since the first patient was reported on Jan 14, 11 others who lived or worked in Little India have been found infected.

All 13 previous appearances of the disease in Singapore were in people who had been infected overseas, and the virus had not spread to others.

Since Jan 14, NEA has inspected more than 4,700 properties in Little India, and destroyed 75 mosquito breeding sites.

It has also enlisted the Little India Shopkeepers and Heritage Association to distribute its posters and booklets with tips on preventing mosquito breeding in seven languages, including Tamil, Hindi and Bengali.

The association has also been advising shopkeepers to be more vigilant against mosquito breeding.

One of them, Mr K. Nadarajan, 52, who owns four vegetarian restaurants in Little India, has had a pest control operator spray his restaurants with insecticide two to three times a week, instead of only once.

Fewer tourists have been coming to the area, and business has been halved in the last two weeks, said the shopkeepers association's chairman, Mr Rajakumar Chandra.

While acknowledging that stamping out the outbreak would not be easy, Prof Tay said that it has been confined to Little India and 'is still containable'.

'This is not a fatalistic outcome, we must not give up. Singapore has always been known to prevail despite outside conditions. The battle can actually be won,' he said.

huichieh@sph.com.sg