Inside NEA's fight against rats: Thermal cameras, AI and 24/7 monitoring
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Smell a rat? Hopefully not.The National Environment Agency (NEA) has reported a 40 per cent decline in rat burrows in the first four months of 2026, as the agency steps up enforcement and surveillance efforts across Singapore. NEA has doubled down on raInside NEA's fight against rats: Thermal cameras, AI and 24/7 monitoring
Smell a rat? Hopefully not.The National Environment Agency (NEA) has reported a 40 per cent decline in rat burrows in the first four months of 2026, as the agency steps up enforcement and surveillance efforts across Singapore. NEA has doubled down on rat enforcement in recent years, leveraging new surveillance technologies and tapping into new tools, such as artificial intelligence, to improve its operations.According to NEA's two-monthly surveillance, the average number of rat burrows detected per cycle fell from about 4,900 in 2025 to about 2,900 in the January-February and March-April 2026 surveillance cycles.The majority of burrows were found in public housing estates, followed by grass verges along roadsides and industrial estates.AsiaOne spoke to NEA officers on the ground to better understand Singapore's rat problem and the measures the agency has been taking to tackle it.Senior Executive Faizal Hamzah from NEA's Sanitation and Vector Control Branch explained how rats possess exceptional survival skills.«Rats are good at finding what they need to survive,» Hamzah stated.











