More than 200 teachers, students, residents and grassroots leaders gathered at Nee Soon South to pick up litter on Sunday morning, as part of the Citizens' Consultative Committee's (CCC) ongoing efforts to encourage residents to keep the residential areas clean.

This is especially important now with the dengue epidemic, as cleaning up will help eradicate sources of breeding grounds for mosquitoes, said Mr Ng Hak Hai, chairman of the CCC's Green Committee, which oversees the programme.

MP for Nee Soon GRC Lee Bee Wah warned residents that the peak period during the hottest months have yet to arrive, but the number of cases from January to April alone stood at 4,756, more than the whole of last year.

"Dengue is getting worse and worse. Sometimes just a little bottle or container out there can collect water, that is why we need everybody to play a part," said Ms Lee.

Known as HABIT @ Nee Soon South, the anti-littering programme began in October last year and is a monthly outreach effort to bring residents together to educate them about littering and gather efforts to clean the area. It aims to reach out to residents in all its seven Residents' Committees and three Neighbourhood Committees by October this year.