Singapore waste plant GM fined S$145,000 over fatal 2021 Tuas explosion

The general manager of Singapore’s Tuas Incineration Plant has been fined S$145,000 for safety lapses linked to a 2021 explosion that killed two senior employees and seriously injured another. The ruling, reported by The Straits Times, marks one of the more serious workplace-safety cases involving a government-run facility in recent years.

Ng Wah Yong, 56, pleaded guilty to one charge under the Workplace Safety and Health Act for failing to ensure proper oversight of high-risk electrical operations at the waste-to-energy plant. The incident came under the spotlight again this month after the National Environment Agency (NEA) — the plant’s operator — was separately fined S$230,000 for its organisational shortcomings.

Court documents stated that the plant’s permit-to-work system did not meet regulatory requirements and that there were no formalised safe-work procedures for high-voltage switchgear racking. These gaps allowed unqualified personnel to issue permits for hazardous electrical work, leaving teams without clear guidelines for handling high-risk tasks.

The case stems from a tragic sequence on 23 September 2021, when three experienced electrical staff entered a switchgear room to investigate a fault. An arc-flash explosion occurred during live racking — a practice that was prohibited. Two long-serving employees, 65-year-old Kwok Yeow Wai and 64-year-old Wee Eng Leng, later died from severe burns. A third worker, engineer Low Yin Choon, 59, survived but suffered serious injuries.

The judge noted that the fatal accident reflected “systemic failings” within the organisation’s safety processes, even as the defence pointed to the rare nature of equipment malfunctions. NEA has since said it accepts responsibility for the lapses. The Tuas Incineration Plant, one of Singapore’s earliest waste-to-energy facilities, was decommissioned in 2022.