NEA Fines About 600 People for Public Urination Every Year

By
Kacey Tan
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You would think that people would know better than to do their business in a public area, under the “surveillance” of merciless netizens with phones in hand, ready to snap a picture or video of anything that may go viral.

Well, considering the grand total of 4 cases of public urination that occurred in a span of just a week, two weeks ago, you think wrong.

On 8 January 2025, a 53-year-old man was captured on video urinating at the platform of Tanah Merah MRT station.

On 13 January 2025, a 57-year-old man was arrested for urinating in front of the passenger service centre of Potong Pasir MRT station

On 14 January 2025, a 41-year-old Chinese national was also fined $2,000 for urinating on an escalator handrail, while drunk, at Outram Park MRT station.

Last but not the least, perhaps the most absurd of them all, two men were seen relieving themselves side-by-side, next to a tree near Toa Payoh MRT station on 14 January 2025.

The Hard-To-Believe Statistics

No, the week before the last was not some exceptional supernatural period, during which individuals suddenly turned insane and decided that peeing in public spaces was socially acceptable.

According to the National Environment Agency (NEA), these were the number of fines issued under the charge of public urination, from 2020 to 2024.

2020: ~200

2021: ~200

2022: ~700

2023: ~1300

2024: ~700

If we were to do some Math, the average number of cases would be roughly 600 per year.

If we were to do even more Math (stay with me now), that would be a whopping average of around 11 cases every week.

A spokesperson from NEA said that the rise in cases in 2023 was a result of tighter enforcement and monitoring of public urination hotspots, following the feedback of citizens regarding the increasingly prevalent issue, hence the increase in people being fined.

I sure hope that the fall in cases from the years 2023 to 2024 is not an anomaly, and is a trend that continues as more people develop sense and normal social behaviour.

Final Reminders 

I’m fervently hoping that all of you readers don’t need this, but do remember that public spaces are not your toilet bowl–really, no one wants to see your ahem out in the open, neither do we want our MRT stations to be smelling like pee.

So even if it feels as if your bladder is about to explode, I suggest you just kiap your legs together and walk as quickly as you can to the nearest public toilet, lest you want to be slapped with a $2,000 fine, and have your face plastered all over social media.

If you watch at least 10 minutes of brain rot content daily, you must know this:

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Kacey Tan