www.shaproperty.com

WE REFER to Dr Kam Hwee Beng's letter 'NEA not able to access mosquito-hazard premises' (ST, June 23)

We thank Dr Kam for his feedback. We wish to clarify that under the Control of Vectors and Pesticides Act, the National Environmental Agency has the power to access a property to check for mosquito breeding.

However, we will only do so if there is a dengue outbreak in the neighbourhood and there are established procedures for this.

Where there is no dengue fever case in the vicinity, we would seek the cooperation of owners to enter a house to inspect for mosquito breeding.

We first received Dr Kam's feedback about the potential mosquito breeding conditions in a neighbouring house in February 2006.

Since then, we have written three letters to the owner of the house at Toh Tuck Road seeking his cooperation to allow us to enter his premises for inspection.

While we had not been able to enter the premises with the owner's permission, we have been closely monitoring the dengue situation in the neighbourhood.

There has been no dengue fever case in the neighbourhood since January this year. Nor has there been any feedback of mosquito nuisance from neighbours.

We thank Dr Kam for the feedback and assure him that we are monitoring the situation closely and will not hesitate to access the house at Toh Tuck Road should the situation warrant it.

S. Satish Appoo
Head, Environmental Health Department
National Environment Agency