Read a summary of this article on FAST.
FAST
SINGAPORE: Lorries from construction sites all over Singapore are going to one of the easternmost points of the country, in Changi, every day.
There, where land meets water, they form lines delivering valuable material: sand and soil. Barges are waiting to be loaded and then carry the volumes of earth to Pulau Tekong, the site of busy land reclamation works.
The island, a training area for Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) soldiers and combat vehicles, is being expanded to meet those needs.
It is not the first such project at Pulau Tekong. With its proximity to Johor, there was a land reclamation case between Singapore and Malaysia heard by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in the early 2000s.
That case was resolved with both countries agreeing on slight modifications to the Tekong reclamation then and agreeing to monitor the area’s ecology, with Singapore also compensating Malaysian fishermen and paying for some protection works across the Johor Strait.
Loading up a barge with excavated earth for Pulau Tekong’s latest land reclamation project.
Singapore, whose land area has expanded significantly over the past 200 years, is also not the only country where land reclamation has played a crucial role in development.
For centuries, city-states in particular have pushed the boundaries of their limited land by advancing into the sea. But there are sensitivities, trade-offs and a balance to be struck.
“Land reclamation has been a challenging diplomatic issue because it’s not something any country can do unilaterally,” noted Bilahari Kausikan, the former Permanent Secretary of Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“It has a huge transboundary effect, which has to be taken seriously. And it has to be discussed between countries.
“Before you do any land reclamation, you have to do an environmental impact study to make sure it doesn’t have undue deleterious effects on your neighbours.”
Image taken from archive footage of reclaimed land in Kallang.
Centuries ago, the city-state Venice was built on reclaimed land. Venetians drove timber piles into soft marshland, creating a stable foundation. Planks and limestone were laid on top, forming the base for much of Venice.
“They had no choice. All the other countries were enemies. They needed the protection of water around the city,” said researcher Luca Zaggia at the Italian National Research Council’s Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources.
“That’s where they became really ingenious because they found a wonderful way of building foundations in such places.”
In this way, Venice grew from a settlement that was 1 sq km to a city more than seven times its original size. It was an island republic that lasted for over 1,000 years.
Venice holds the secrets of an island republic that thrived for a millennium.
Today, only three city-states remain: Singapore, Monaco and Vatican City — all small, vulnerable and resource-scarce. Their existence is a perpetual balancing act, but that is also what drives them to greatness.
The series, Singapore’s Balancing Act, explores the challenges faced by city-states, their strategies for success and how they can endure. Here are four ways in which they safeguard their sovereignty — sometimes similarly, sometimes differently.
The smallest of the city-states, and the smallest nation on earth, is Vatican City, located within Italy’s capital, Rome.
While the Vatican has public spaces, with its ancient walls standing as its first line of defence, access to its inner sanctum is protected by the Swiss Guards.
Swiss Guards on duty in Vatican City.
Often called “the world’s smallest army”, they have protected popes for over 500 years. Their duties range from the daily protection of the pontiff to managing security during major events and papal audiences.
They must be Catholic Swiss citizens, at least 1.74m tall, must have done military service in Switzerland and must have graduated from high school at a minimum, before they can swear allegiance to the Vatican.
“We’re very proud about it,” said Swiss Guard spokesman Corporal Eliah Cinotti. “For me, it’s special because we have it — this citizenship — only (while) we’re here in the Vatican. When we go back, we have to give back the citizenship.”
With 135 members, the Swiss Guard is not a full-fledged military.
The situation is somewhat similar in Monaco, which has just over 120 soldiers. Their primary duties include ensuring the security of their prince and guarding the principality’s palace. For its military defence, Monaco relies on France.
One of Monaco’s 124 soldiers, who are called the Palace Guards.
Singapore, meanwhile, depends primarily on its own citizens for its defence and boasts a technologically advanced air force, navy, army and digital and intelligence services.
Military defence is consistently one of the largest items in Singapore’s Budget, with expenditure projected to be S$23.4 billion (US$17.6 billion) in the coming financial year. The city-state ranks among Asia’s top 10 defence spenders and leads in Southeast Asia.
“We don’t live in the most salubrious neighbourhood. Our neighbours don’t love us dearly. They’re polite to us. Why? Because we have a strong defence,” said Kausikan.
“Therefore, you have to spend some amount of your money on defence, even as we’ll need to increase social spending due to an ageing population.”
WATCH PART 1: How small city-states defend their sovereignty and independence (47:07)
Acquisition of high-tech equipment has gone hand in hand with skills improvement in the SAF. After decades of operating second-hand submarines, for example, the Republic of Singapore Navy has introduced its state-of-the-art Invincible-class submarines, manned by highly trained crews.
The first two submarines were commissioned in September — the same month that Singapore’s first fully digitalised armoured fighting vehicle, the Hunter, debuted in Exercise Wallaby in Australia. The annual exercise is the SAF’s largest unilateral overseas exercise.
For city-states throughout history, diplomacy has also been key to survival and advancing national interests. Venice, for example, had an extensive network of diplomats.
“Venetians were ready to be sent into the world. They knew languages. They were curious. And they travelled all around the Mediterranean area, northern Europe, Africa … and the Far East,” said author Alberto Toso Fei, an expert in Venice’s history.
“More than this, … they decided to found the diplomatic post — everywhere. This is a Venetian invention.”
In 1965, when Singapore became independent, it also swiftly established its first diplomatic missions: in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and New York City. Today, the city-state maintains over 50 overseas missions.
Singapore’s diplomatic missions worldwide.
“If you’re a small city-state, it’s very important for you to know what’s going on in the world,” said Kausikan.
“Singapore will never be an island. What I mean is that you can’t insulate yourself. … You can take advantage of opportunities or get out of harm’s way in good time. But you can’t do (either) without a diplomatic network.”
Vatican City has an extensive diplomatic network too.
The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church, has relations with 184 states, which is “fundamental to the very identity of the papacy”, said Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican secretary for relations with states.
“Popes over the centuries have always had relations with kings and presidents and other rulers.”
Visits like Pope Francis’ Asia-Pacific trip last year are a “very important” way of complementing those diplomatic strategies.
Pope Francis in Singapore in September, bidding farewell to his audience at Catholic Junior College. (Photo: CNA/Syamil Sapari)
“Any official visit, whether it’s by a pope or by a president or a king, is … one of the instruments that you use in maintaining a relationship, deepening a relationship,” said Gallagher.
“It also gives you an opportunity to (convey a) message to a people, to the local church and to leaders.”
And through the global influence of the Catholic Church, the Vatican’s diplomatic reach is not hindered by Italy. There are 90 diplomatic missions to the Holy See in the heart of Rome.
In contrast, Monaco has had its diplomacy limited by its dependence on France. After World War I, the coastal city-state signed a treaty with its larger neighbour that traded some diplomatic independence for military protection.
At Monaco’s foreign ministry.
As a result, its foreign policy had to be “perfectly aligned with France’s interests in international foreign affairs”, said Jean-Marie Veran, special adviser to Monaco’s minister of foreign affairs and cooperation.
Monaco had to reach prior agreement with France on any action the principality wished to take, he said. But the two states signed a new treaty in 2002 that has changed that.
The city-state has since been able to have, for example, ambassadors from foreign countries accredited to its prince.
For Singapore, meanwhile, diplomatic autonomy is underpinned by its ability to defend itself. And through collaboration with a range of defence partners, both its defence and diplomacy are enhanced.
“There’s such a thing as defence diplomacy. Anybody that wants to work with us in defence, we’ll work (with), provided it’s in our interest,” said Kausikan.
“Our closest defence partner is the US, and its allies, … because our interests are aligned, and they’re better than us. If (we) want to improve our defence, we have to work with them.”
Bilahari Kausikan is also the chairman of the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute.
But autonomy is also tested by a lack of vital resources, and city-states have had to negotiate dependence on larger neighbours for food and water.
Vatican City gets all of its water from Rome. And in 2017, the city-state turned off all its fountains, including those in its iconic St Peter’s Square, because of a drought affecting Rome.
The Vatican also buys its electricity from Italy, so it is “very aware of that dependence and that relationship”, said Gallagher.
“But it’s not a bad thing to recognise one’s dependence. If we want to be totally, totally independent, if we have a notion of sovereignty that’s like that, then it’s not really being realistic.”
In Singapore, whose population crossed the six million mark last year, demand for food is growing.
Local produce in Singapore comes with a logo.
It imports more than 90 per cent of its food and has set itself the goal of producing 30 per cent of its nutritional needs by 2030 — with only about 1 per cent of land set aside for agriculture.
Singapore is not reliant on any single source of food, however, as its imports come from over 180 countries and regions.
“We’re a global city where our hinterland is no longer Malaya or Malaysia; it’s the world,” said Kausikan. “But what was left was water.”
Under the 1962 Water Agreement, Singapore is entitled to draw up to 250 million gallons of water per day from Johor, priced at 3 Malaysian sen per thousand gallons. This is more than half of the city-state’s current water demand.
The 99-year agreement has been a cornerstone of Singapore’s water supply but also an occasional source of tension with Malaysia.
“You can’t change international agreements unilaterally. To put it in Singlish, cannot ‘suka-suka’ change just because you don’t like it,” said Kausikan. “It’s a challenge to our sovereignty because water is (a matter of) life and death.”
Importing water was a challenge for Venice too, as its rival powers controlled the water sources on the surrounding mainland. “Getting water from the mainland would’ve been dangerous for the risk of attacks or poisoning,” said Zaggia.
To bring about a self-sufficient water supply, Venetians designed rooftops and open squares in a way that funnelled rainwater into an underground filtration system made of sand and stone. The filtered water was collected in large cisterns, or wells.
This is similar to the way Singapore uses more than two-thirds of its land surface as a catchment area for its reservoirs.
Over in Monaco, six spring water sources can provide 30 to 50 per cent of the city-state’s water supply. But these local water sources are under threat, and one reason is climate change.
“The situation used to be very comfortable. We had many resources … in France, in Monaco. And today, it’s over,” said Manuel Nardi, chief executive officer of Societe Monegasque des Eaux (Monegasque Water Company).
“We must be very careful with water and search for new resources and alternative resources.”
A cave that was once filled with water from the Vaulabelle — one of Monaco’s oldest underground springs — but is now dry.
Nardi thinks there will be “no choice” but to move towards recycling used water — as Singapore has done with NEWater — because Monaco’s wastewater treatment plant has “the most capacity” to supply water.
For Singapore, reclaimed water can meet up to 40 per cent of its water needs — with the construction of another treatment facility, the Tuas Water Reclamation Plant, already under way.
After decades of investment, the city-state has become a global leader in water reclamation. NEWater, local catchment water, imported water from Malaysia and desalinated water have become the four national taps.
“Without that existential threat of having our water supply dry up, we wouldn’t have invested in NEWater. We may not have thought about recycling our wastewater, but we did,” said Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy senior lecturer Woo Jun Jie.
“For a city-state that’s been backed into a corner frequently, innovation has been key. And that’s allowed us to survive.”
Bottles of NEWater, a product of water purification methods Singapore has been able to master.
While scarcity of another resource — land — is something Singapore has had to address owing to urban and population growth, the city-state is reclaiming land to mitigate the impacts of rising sea levels as well.
Take the Long Island reclamation project, which aims to create about 800 hectares of land off the East Coast as part of Singapore’s coastal defence.
It will protect against sea-level rise, enhance flood resilience, create a new reservoir for water security and provide space for future development needs.
Other measures could include coastal barriers as well as tidal gates and pumping stations, like at the Marina Barrage, said Hazel Khoo, the director of coastal protection at national water agency PUB.
WATCH PART 2: How global city-states balance economic growth and liveability (47:19)
But the new project comes with a few concerns and trade-offs, as land reclamation will affect the environment and disrupt sea sports.
“I believe we have to work together with the government to make sure that this Long Island project doesn’t hinder outdoor sea activities,” said windsurfing coach and former national sailor Chua Tan Ching.
Khoo sees it as an opportunity to introduce new recreational and water activities.
There will be conversations with members of the public, businesses and sporting associations, she promised, “as to what they’d want to see in terms of activating the spaces within Long Island”.
Long Island will change the eastern coastline — and stop the rising seas from destroying it.
In modern-day Venice, a mega project to shield the city from rising waters, while permitting the flow of ships in and out of the Venetian Lagoon, has already been designed.
The MOSE system, in use since 2020, consists of 78 steel gates that normally lie flat underwater but are raised using compressed air when extreme high tides are forecast, forming a flood barrier at the lagoon’s three inlet channels.
This feat of modern engineering, costing about 6 billion euros (US$6.5 billion), is a “strategic infrastructure” that will last 100 years, said Giovanni Zarotti, the technical director behind the project.
Before this, there was the Murazzi, stone walls stretching for 16km along Venice’s barrier islands and standing close to 5 metres above sea level.
But during a storm surge in 2019, Venice suffered its worst flood in over 50 years. Those sea walls — up to 280 years old — have since been reinforced, while a beach nourishment programme was also implemented for greater coastal protection.
MOSE flood barriers at one of the inlets connecting the Venetian Lagoon to the Adriatic Sea.
The Murazzi helps to protect Venice and its lagoon.
While the Murazzi and the Long Island plan are separated by centuries and a vast distance, Kelly Latimer, the host of Singapore’s Balancing Act, thinks lessons can be learned from Venice.
For one thing, Venetians have built a life near the sea walls, “including large green spaces, recreational spaces as well”, she observed.
“This is something we can look to for Long Island, a potential future for us where we can live, work and play.”
Watch the series, Singapore’s Balancing Act, here and here.
Source: CNA/dp
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FAST
SINGAPORE: Lorries from construction sites all over Singapore are going to one of the easternmost points of the country, in Changi, every day.
There, where land meets water, they form lines delivering valuable material: sand and soil. Barges are waiting to be loaded and then carry the volumes of earth to Pulau Tekong, the site of busy land reclamation works.
The island, a training area for Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) soldiers and combat vehicles, is being expanded to meet those needs.
It is not the first such project at Pulau Tekong. With its proximity to Johor, there was a land reclamation case between Singapore and Malaysia heard by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in the early 2000s.
That case was resolved with both countries agreeing on slight modifications to the Tekong reclamation then and agreeing to monitor the area’s ecology, with Singapore also compensating Malaysian fishermen and paying for some protection works across the Johor Strait.
Loading up a barge with excavated earth for Pulau Tekong’s latest land reclamation project.
Singapore, whose land area has expanded significantly over the past 200 years, is also not the only country where land reclamation has played a crucial role in development.
For centuries, city-states in particular have pushed the boundaries of their limited land by advancing into the sea. But there are sensitivities, trade-offs and a balance to be struck.
“Land reclamation has been a challenging diplomatic issue because it’s not something any country can do unilaterally,” noted Bilahari Kausikan, the former Permanent Secretary of Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“It has a huge transboundary effect, which has to be taken seriously. And it has to be discussed between countries.
“Before you do any land reclamation, you have to do an environmental impact study to make sure it doesn’t have undue deleterious effects on your neighbours.”
Image taken from archive footage of reclaimed land in Kallang.
Centuries ago, the city-state Venice was built on reclaimed land. Venetians drove timber piles into soft marshland, creating a stable foundation. Planks and limestone were laid on top, forming the base for much of Venice.
“They had no choice. All the other countries were enemies. They needed the protection of water around the city,” said researcher Luca Zaggia at the Italian National Research Council’s Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources.
“That’s where they became really ingenious because they found a wonderful way of building foundations in such places.”
In this way, Venice grew from a settlement that was 1 sq km to a city more than seven times its original size. It was an island republic that lasted for over 1,000 years.
Venice holds the secrets of an island republic that thrived for a millennium.
Today, only three city-states remain: Singapore, Monaco and Vatican City — all small, vulnerable and resource-scarce. Their existence is a perpetual balancing act, but that is also what drives them to greatness.
The series, Singapore’s Balancing Act, explores the challenges faced by city-states, their strategies for success and how they can endure. Here are four ways in which they safeguard their sovereignty — sometimes similarly, sometimes differently.
1. HOW THEY DEFEND THEMSELVES
The smallest of the city-states, and the smallest nation on earth, is Vatican City, located within Italy’s capital, Rome.
While the Vatican has public spaces, with its ancient walls standing as its first line of defence, access to its inner sanctum is protected by the Swiss Guards.
Swiss Guards on duty in Vatican City.
Often called “the world’s smallest army”, they have protected popes for over 500 years. Their duties range from the daily protection of the pontiff to managing security during major events and papal audiences.
They must be Catholic Swiss citizens, at least 1.74m tall, must have done military service in Switzerland and must have graduated from high school at a minimum, before they can swear allegiance to the Vatican.
“We’re very proud about it,” said Swiss Guard spokesman Corporal Eliah Cinotti. “For me, it’s special because we have it — this citizenship — only (while) we’re here in the Vatican. When we go back, we have to give back the citizenship.”
With 135 members, the Swiss Guard is not a full-fledged military.
The situation is somewhat similar in Monaco, which has just over 120 soldiers. Their primary duties include ensuring the security of their prince and guarding the principality’s palace. For its military defence, Monaco relies on France.
One of Monaco’s 124 soldiers, who are called the Palace Guards.
Singapore, meanwhile, depends primarily on its own citizens for its defence and boasts a technologically advanced air force, navy, army and digital and intelligence services.
Military defence is consistently one of the largest items in Singapore’s Budget, with expenditure projected to be S$23.4 billion (US$17.6 billion) in the coming financial year. The city-state ranks among Asia’s top 10 defence spenders and leads in Southeast Asia.
“We don’t live in the most salubrious neighbourhood. Our neighbours don’t love us dearly. They’re polite to us. Why? Because we have a strong defence,” said Kausikan.
“Therefore, you have to spend some amount of your money on defence, even as we’ll need to increase social spending due to an ageing population.”
WATCH PART 1: How small city-states defend their sovereignty and independence (47:07)
Acquisition of high-tech equipment has gone hand in hand with skills improvement in the SAF. After decades of operating second-hand submarines, for example, the Republic of Singapore Navy has introduced its state-of-the-art Invincible-class submarines, manned by highly trained crews.
The first two submarines were commissioned in September — the same month that Singapore’s first fully digitalised armoured fighting vehicle, the Hunter, debuted in Exercise Wallaby in Australia. The annual exercise is the SAF’s largest unilateral overseas exercise.
2. HOW THEY MASTER DIPLOMACY
For city-states throughout history, diplomacy has also been key to survival and advancing national interests. Venice, for example, had an extensive network of diplomats.
“Venetians were ready to be sent into the world. They knew languages. They were curious. And they travelled all around the Mediterranean area, northern Europe, Africa … and the Far East,” said author Alberto Toso Fei, an expert in Venice’s history.
“More than this, … they decided to found the diplomatic post — everywhere. This is a Venetian invention.”
In 1965, when Singapore became independent, it also swiftly established its first diplomatic missions: in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and New York City. Today, the city-state maintains over 50 overseas missions.
Singapore’s diplomatic missions worldwide.
“If you’re a small city-state, it’s very important for you to know what’s going on in the world,” said Kausikan.
“Singapore will never be an island. What I mean is that you can’t insulate yourself. … You can take advantage of opportunities or get out of harm’s way in good time. But you can’t do (either) without a diplomatic network.”
Vatican City has an extensive diplomatic network too.
The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church, has relations with 184 states, which is “fundamental to the very identity of the papacy”, said Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican secretary for relations with states.
“Popes over the centuries have always had relations with kings and presidents and other rulers.”
Visits like Pope Francis’ Asia-Pacific trip last year are a “very important” way of complementing those diplomatic strategies.
Pope Francis in Singapore in September, bidding farewell to his audience at Catholic Junior College. (Photo: CNA/Syamil Sapari)
“Any official visit, whether it’s by a pope or by a president or a king, is … one of the instruments that you use in maintaining a relationship, deepening a relationship,” said Gallagher.
“It also gives you an opportunity to (convey a) message to a people, to the local church and to leaders.”
And through the global influence of the Catholic Church, the Vatican’s diplomatic reach is not hindered by Italy. There are 90 diplomatic missions to the Holy See in the heart of Rome.
In contrast, Monaco has had its diplomacy limited by its dependence on France. After World War I, the coastal city-state signed a treaty with its larger neighbour that traded some diplomatic independence for military protection.
At Monaco’s foreign ministry.
As a result, its foreign policy had to be “perfectly aligned with France’s interests in international foreign affairs”, said Jean-Marie Veran, special adviser to Monaco’s minister of foreign affairs and cooperation.
Monaco had to reach prior agreement with France on any action the principality wished to take, he said. But the two states signed a new treaty in 2002 that has changed that.
The city-state has since been able to have, for example, ambassadors from foreign countries accredited to its prince.
For Singapore, meanwhile, diplomatic autonomy is underpinned by its ability to defend itself. And through collaboration with a range of defence partners, both its defence and diplomacy are enhanced.
“There’s such a thing as defence diplomacy. Anybody that wants to work with us in defence, we’ll work (with), provided it’s in our interest,” said Kausikan.
“Our closest defence partner is the US, and its allies, … because our interests are aligned, and they’re better than us. If (we) want to improve our defence, we have to work with them.”
Bilahari Kausikan is also the chairman of the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute.
3. HOW THEY NEGOTIATE RESOURCE DEPENDENCE
But autonomy is also tested by a lack of vital resources, and city-states have had to negotiate dependence on larger neighbours for food and water.
Vatican City gets all of its water from Rome. And in 2017, the city-state turned off all its fountains, including those in its iconic St Peter’s Square, because of a drought affecting Rome.
The Vatican also buys its electricity from Italy, so it is “very aware of that dependence and that relationship”, said Gallagher.
“But it’s not a bad thing to recognise one’s dependence. If we want to be totally, totally independent, if we have a notion of sovereignty that’s like that, then it’s not really being realistic.”
In Singapore, whose population crossed the six million mark last year, demand for food is growing.
Local produce in Singapore comes with a logo.
It imports more than 90 per cent of its food and has set itself the goal of producing 30 per cent of its nutritional needs by 2030 — with only about 1 per cent of land set aside for agriculture.
Singapore is not reliant on any single source of food, however, as its imports come from over 180 countries and regions.
“We’re a global city where our hinterland is no longer Malaya or Malaysia; it’s the world,” said Kausikan. “But what was left was water.”
Under the 1962 Water Agreement, Singapore is entitled to draw up to 250 million gallons of water per day from Johor, priced at 3 Malaysian sen per thousand gallons. This is more than half of the city-state’s current water demand.
The 99-year agreement has been a cornerstone of Singapore’s water supply but also an occasional source of tension with Malaysia.
“You can’t change international agreements unilaterally. To put it in Singlish, cannot ‘suka-suka’ change just because you don’t like it,” said Kausikan. “It’s a challenge to our sovereignty because water is (a matter of) life and death.”
Related stories:
Importing water was a challenge for Venice too, as its rival powers controlled the water sources on the surrounding mainland. “Getting water from the mainland would’ve been dangerous for the risk of attacks or poisoning,” said Zaggia.
To bring about a self-sufficient water supply, Venetians designed rooftops and open squares in a way that funnelled rainwater into an underground filtration system made of sand and stone. The filtered water was collected in large cisterns, or wells.
This is similar to the way Singapore uses more than two-thirds of its land surface as a catchment area for its reservoirs.
Over in Monaco, six spring water sources can provide 30 to 50 per cent of the city-state’s water supply. But these local water sources are under threat, and one reason is climate change.
“The situation used to be very comfortable. We had many resources … in France, in Monaco. And today, it’s over,” said Manuel Nardi, chief executive officer of Societe Monegasque des Eaux (Monegasque Water Company).
“We must be very careful with water and search for new resources and alternative resources.”
A cave that was once filled with water from the Vaulabelle — one of Monaco’s oldest underground springs — but is now dry.
Nardi thinks there will be “no choice” but to move towards recycling used water — as Singapore has done with NEWater — because Monaco’s wastewater treatment plant has “the most capacity” to supply water.
For Singapore, reclaimed water can meet up to 40 per cent of its water needs — with the construction of another treatment facility, the Tuas Water Reclamation Plant, already under way.
After decades of investment, the city-state has become a global leader in water reclamation. NEWater, local catchment water, imported water from Malaysia and desalinated water have become the four national taps.
“Without that existential threat of having our water supply dry up, we wouldn’t have invested in NEWater. We may not have thought about recycling our wastewater, but we did,” said Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy senior lecturer Woo Jun Jie.
“For a city-state that’s been backed into a corner frequently, innovation has been key. And that’s allowed us to survive.”
Bottles of NEWater, a product of water purification methods Singapore has been able to master.
4. HOW THEY OVERCOME LIMITED LAND AND RISING SEAS
While scarcity of another resource — land — is something Singapore has had to address owing to urban and population growth, the city-state is reclaiming land to mitigate the impacts of rising sea levels as well.
Take the Long Island reclamation project, which aims to create about 800 hectares of land off the East Coast as part of Singapore’s coastal defence.
It will protect against sea-level rise, enhance flood resilience, create a new reservoir for water security and provide space for future development needs.
Other measures could include coastal barriers as well as tidal gates and pumping stations, like at the Marina Barrage, said Hazel Khoo, the director of coastal protection at national water agency PUB.
WATCH PART 2: How global city-states balance economic growth and liveability (47:19)
But the new project comes with a few concerns and trade-offs, as land reclamation will affect the environment and disrupt sea sports.
“I believe we have to work together with the government to make sure that this Long Island project doesn’t hinder outdoor sea activities,” said windsurfing coach and former national sailor Chua Tan Ching.
Khoo sees it as an opportunity to introduce new recreational and water activities.
There will be conversations with members of the public, businesses and sporting associations, she promised, “as to what they’d want to see in terms of activating the spaces within Long Island”.
Long Island will change the eastern coastline — and stop the rising seas from destroying it.
In modern-day Venice, a mega project to shield the city from rising waters, while permitting the flow of ships in and out of the Venetian Lagoon, has already been designed.
The MOSE system, in use since 2020, consists of 78 steel gates that normally lie flat underwater but are raised using compressed air when extreme high tides are forecast, forming a flood barrier at the lagoon’s three inlet channels.
This feat of modern engineering, costing about 6 billion euros (US$6.5 billion), is a “strategic infrastructure” that will last 100 years, said Giovanni Zarotti, the technical director behind the project.
Before this, there was the Murazzi, stone walls stretching for 16km along Venice’s barrier islands and standing close to 5 metres above sea level.
But during a storm surge in 2019, Venice suffered its worst flood in over 50 years. Those sea walls — up to 280 years old — have since been reinforced, while a beach nourishment programme was also implemented for greater coastal protection.
MOSE flood barriers at one of the inlets connecting the Venetian Lagoon to the Adriatic Sea.
The Murazzi helps to protect Venice and its lagoon.
While the Murazzi and the Long Island plan are separated by centuries and a vast distance, Kelly Latimer, the host of Singapore’s Balancing Act, thinks lessons can be learned from Venice.
For one thing, Venetians have built a life near the sea walls, “including large green spaces, recreational spaces as well”, she observed.
“This is something we can look to for Long Island, a potential future for us where we can live, work and play.”
Watch the series, Singapore’s Balancing Act, here and here.
You may also be interested in:
Source: CNA/dp
Get the CNA app
Stay updated with notifications for breaking news and our best stories
Download here
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Join our channel for the top reads for the day on your preferred chat app
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