I agree that Singapore is not so much a clean city as it is a "cleaned" one.

On Aug 23, I saw a lot of rubbish floating in the Kallang River, near the Braddell bus depot. It must have washed into the river from drains flowing through Bishan and Toa Payoh after a storm.

I highlighted the issue to national water agency PUB. Three days later, I saw some workers cleaning up the river.

Just this Wednesday, I revisited the river at Potong Pasir and noticed that the rubbish had reappeared after a pre-dawn downpour.

We tend to focus on having clean waters in the more-frequented areas, such as the Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park and Kallang Basin, but neglect the less-frequented areas.

We are so preoccupied with our own lives that many of us fail to see the impact of our inconsiderate actions. We must realise that everything we throw indiscriminately into the drains will end up in the rivers that flow towards the sea.

It is only when a storm occurs that the accumulated rubbish in the drains are washed into the rivers and we notice the full impact of our actions - unsightly flotsam, stinking water and eutrophication caused by algal bloom, all of which affect aquatic life negatively.

Are we going to continue shirking our responsibility in keeping the environment clean? Are we too concerned with keeping up the image of a "clean and green city" that we forget the less-frequented areas?

We may not think about how our actions affect the animals, plants and the environment, but they will ultimately affect us adversely because we are all interconnected in the ecosystem.

Jimmy Tan San Tek