English Research Project Report

Group Members: Chua Jiin-Linn, Nicholas Kuek, Sean Yeo

M15503
Introduction
Singapore has come a long way since its independence in 1965, soaring to
the top of international rankings and the like. In 2013, Singapore was
ranked 6th out of 111 countries on the Where-to-be-born Index conducted
by the Economist Intelligence Unit. This year, Singapore took it a step
further and topped the Global Liveability Index. However, despite how far
Singapore has come, it is undeniable Singapore has and will always face
several innate challenges that will never cease to go away. One of the
challenges that has plagued Singapore even before its independence
and remains a problematic one even up till now is the lack of natural
resources, which is what we will be focusing on in this report.
The lack of natural resources was a monumental hurdle that Singapores
forefathers faced when building this nation. The lack of natural resources
meant that hardly anything could be easily achieved by themselves. Even
up to this day, with rapid globalisation and booming trade, together with
multilateral policies and agreements in place, this complex issue remains
firmly planted at the back of everyones minds. This massive challenge is
a multifaceted one there are a multitude of areas and aspects that this
problem affects as such, we will only be focusing on two of the many
resulting effects of this issue: Water, and Food.
Singapore is a city-state and island nation with about 718.3 km2 of land,
making Singapore one of the smallest sovereign nations in the entire
world. With such a limited amount, land is a precious commodity. As a
result of the land being put to better use by building key infrastructure
such as HDB flats, corporate buildings, schools, roads, and other facilities,
little land has been left for agricultural use such as farms and plantations,

as well as water intake and treatment facilities. This leaves Singapore with
little options.
AGRICULTURE
As mentioned earlier our limitations prevent us from self-sustaining
ourselves via any forms of agriculture. So how does Singapore cope with
this disability? How does she ensure that her citizens receive a wide
variety of fresh agriculture to consume in order to sustain their daily
activities?
For a start, approximately 90% of the food consumed in Singapore is
imported and controlled by the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) and
they come from countries such as Thailand, and Australia. One strategy
which our government has implemented was to import food from various
parts of the world. As an ASEAN country, we have easy access to a wide
variety of agriculture from our neighbouring countries due to our free
trade agreements.
The benefits of this strategy includes strong friendship forged with other
countries, as the trade between the two countries is continuous and
mutualistic. It also allows us to use our limited land for other greater
purposes that can help contribute to our well-developed economy.
However, we must understand that the heavy dependence on other
countries for agriculture puts us in a very risky situation. Firstly, in times
of weather crisis and poor harvest in a country, the availability of imports
will decrease, affecting our quality of living. Secondly, food prices can also
be manipulated by other countries to their advantage, giving Singapore
the short end of the stick. Therefore, our standard of living in terms of
food availability is highly dependent on other countries.
Hence, we should increase the scope of where we import from. Also,
forging strong bonds with other countries helps decrease the chances of

price manipulation. In any case, back up plans are a definite must to help
ensure that our current standard of living will not be compromised and
should any problems arise, they will be settled efficiently.
Another strategy which Singapore has implemented to overcome the
challenge we face is the use of agrotechnology. Agrotechnology is
intensive

farming

to

increase

output

and

we

currently

have

agrotechnology parks which cover a total land area of 1,465 hectares,

including the ones at Loyang and Mandai. There are also marine parks on
sea and our long term aim is to become an agrotechnology centre
focusing on tropical and urban agriculture.
This strategy not only allows us to be more self-sustainable, but also less
dependent on other countries for food resources. Apart from accumulating
a higher Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the quality of foods provided to
our people may also be better due to better freshness.
However, it is very difficult for us to focus on agrotechnology parks due to
space constraints. A lot of money and resources, such as the electricity
spent on the optimum light and temperature, would also be needed to
sustain these parks due to our unpredictable weather.
One suggestion to overcome such a limitation could be to grow our own
crops. HDB residents can do so along their corridors or at their rooftop
garden, and companies can do likewise. This will make us more self-reliant
and less dependable on imports. With the rise in the number of citizens
keen on gardening, there will be positive results. For this solution to reap
long term benefits, the government can create more vertical space for
such practices to continue and also introduce programmes which impart
useful gardening knowledge to the public so as to ensure that food safety
and proper skills are maintained.
WATER

Unlike other large countries, Singapore does not have a sizeable amount
of land area which contain natural freshwater sources such as mountains
or lakes or groundwater. As such, Singapore has imported water from
Malaysia since 1932. However, from 1998 to 2002, negotiations for an
extension of water supply fell through due to increased price of water and
lack of higher quality infrastructure provided by Malaysia compared to
other countries, thus, Singapore chose to stop importing water from
Malaysia and to achieve self sufficiency for water by 2061.
Currently, there are 4 sources of water which provides Singapore with
water for personal consumption and industrial use. These include local
catchment areas, imported water, NEWater, and desalinated water. Local
catchment areas cover of Singapores land area and consists of 17
reservoirs and a network of 32 drains, canals, rivers and storm-water
collection ponds. There are plans to increase local catchment areas to
90% of Singapores land area. Imported water from Malaysia is under a
contract which expires in 2061. NEWater is a local innovation which is
reclaimed water from treated wastewater. it currently provides 33% of
Singapores water supply with plans to increase it to 55%. The ultrapure
water produced by NEWater plants are used for industrial purposes and
also personal consumption. Desalinated water currently provides for 25%
of Singapores water.
Besides tackling supply side problems, there are also measures to tackle
the demand for water. These measures include water conservation
programmes, community outreach programmes and industry oriented
goals. Water conservation programmes cover businesses and consumers.
Through initiatives such as TV commercials, social media platform
outreach, the PUB spreads water saving tips and information. PUB also
provides handbooks for information on water saving for domestic helpers,
while primary 3 students have water saving as part of their social studies
curriculum in school. Besides such initiatives, PUB also promotes
awareness of the importance our water sources by letting the community

appreciates it water supplies, as such, PUB regularly keeps its land

catchment areas clean and also allows for water activities to be performed
in several catchment areas, notably, marina barrage. As for goods, items
such as washing machines are given water efficiency certifications in
order to provide for better judgement when making purchases. PUB also
gives water efficiency certification to buildings with water efficient
systems and practises. With these measures, singapore aims to reduce
water usage to 147 litres a day by 2020 and 140 litres a day by 2030.
Singapore also aims to be a global hydrohub, a centre for research and
development of water technologies, NEWater being one such example.
The advantages of currently existing solutions is that it is a two pronged
strategy, tackling both the demand and supply problems, making it doubly
effective. It also takes advantage of Singapores geographical location as
a tropical island with high rainfall. Moreover, singapore also comes up with
innovative solutions for its problems. On the other hand, our reliance on
our geographical location makes our water supply subject to weather
effects such as monsoon seasons, El Nio or other adverse weather
effects that would decrease rainfall in singapore for extended periods of
time. A solution to this would be to create an underground storage area
for water. singapore has created such underground storage area for
munitions and petrochemicals, hence it would not be impossible for
singapore to realise such a solution. Another downside to the current
solutions is that it is easy to take advantage of the fact that we currently
are able to have water supplies that meet our needs.
Other improvements to the current measures would be to invest more in
the water industry in singapore. More emphasis on such technologies can
be put, in order to boost R&D for such industries in singapore.