Social Impacts.

It is hard to find any direct social impact from collection of junk materials. Therefore, in this section, we’ll see how the absence of this activity could have impact on the society.  What we can see is the social impacts that arose from the environmental problems should the street aunties and uncles stopped their daily activity.

Singapore’s Image as a clean, green city.

Firstly, when the cardboard is left on the alleyways and pavements along Clive St and Serangoon Road, it would dirty up the place quite a bit. If the PWCs do not manage the disposal of these junk items, it would lead to quite a mess at this stretch of road.

Credit: Tekka Centre in Singapore – Little India’s colourful Hawker Market www.singapore-guide.com

The area in question is quite popular with tourists, with places like the  Sri Vadapathira Kaliamman Temple and many other Buddhist and Hindu temples that are located there. Not to mention that Little India is just down along Serangoon Road.

The mess would surely affect Singapore’s reputation as a clean state and might have social impacts on us as a society. It might have impacts on tourism in Singapore as well with high volumes of human traffic there.

Increased Competition for elderly.

Anecdotal accounts reveal the increasing competition for  junk resources. The cleaners employed in the areas by the PWCs to dispose of rubbish  in chutes are also plying the trade. Keep in mind, these are young to middle aged people who collect these items, leaving lesser junk materials for the elderly to collect.

Credit:ifonlysingaporeans.blogspot.com

The concept of the tragedy of the commons applies here wherein the common pool resources are limited and when there is increased demand for the resources, the competition for it would increase. This impacts them by reducing their daily takings and thus earn less.

Credit:undertheangsanatree.blogspot.com

As in many cases for the management for the common pool resource, government legislation should be applied to mange the problem. We shall explore this further in the next section!

 

 

 

 

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