Channel NewsAsia 2 Jul 08;
SINGAPORE: Sungei Ulu Pandan is set to be the next hotspot for urban freshwater research in Singapore. It will have a new Aquatic Science Centre by the end of 2009, the first of its kind in Asia.
Besides training and research, the joint initiative by the Singapore-Delft Water Alliance (SDWA) will also double up as a public education centre.
The centre is a joint research initiative by the SDWA, comprising the National University of Singapore, PUB and Delft Hydraulics.
Environment and Water Resources Minister, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, said: "This is a very important part of our work to ensure that our water quality is being monitored on a continuous basis.
"Yet at the same time, we want to develop knowledge and understanding of our water bodies - how is it we can use natural solutions to keep our water bodies clean and water flowing."
Nearly 20 researchers from various disciplines ranging from biology to engineering will look into integrated approaches to urban water problems.
These include improving water quality and supply, mitigating flood risks, and understanding the interaction between plants, soil and water bodies.
Associate Professor Vladan Babovic, Director, Singapore-Delft Water Alliance, said: "The challenges that we are trying to address are posed by greater urbanisation and the pressures that the environment feels as a consequence of centuries of human activities."
The proposed centre at Sungei Ulu Pandan is the first of three environmental observatories in the pipeline. The other two centres will be developed in a reservoir setting as well as a marine setting.
About S$9 million in funding will be poured into the 1,800 square-metre facility at Sungei Ulu Pandan.
Not just confined to research, the upcoming research centre also aims to play an educational role. It will be open to the public once completed at the end of 2009 to promote the appreciation of water and its conservation. - CNA/vm
Aquatic Science Centre to open along Ulu Pandan Canal
Besides research, centre aims to whet interest of public in water technologies
Tania Tan, Straits Times 3 Jul 08;
A WATER research laboratory will come up on the banks of the Ulu Pandan Canal in Clementi by the end of next year.
Launched yesterday, the Aquatic Science Centre will carry out studies on urban water management. Its interactive showcase of projects and technologies will be open to the public.
Set up by the Singapore-Delft Water Alliance (SDWA), the centre is the first of a network of three such centres which will monitor water quality around the island.
The 1,800 sq m Clementi centre will be staffed by some 20 researchers from fields like biology, hydro-engineering and chemistry.
The $9 million it will take to build the centre and fund its work will come from the National Research Foundation, National University of Singapore and national water agency PUB.
The other two water-research centres will be sited on the Southern Islands and at a reservoir.
Director of the SDWA, Professor Vladan Babovic, explained that siting the centres near the Ulu Pandan Canal, the open sea and a reservoir meant that their research would cover the entire water cycle.
At the launch yesterday, Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim said the centres' findings will enable urban planners to make Singapore's waterways both beautiful and functional.
The research thus complements the PUB's massive Active, Beautiful and Clean Waterways project.
The minister explained that the challenge in this project lay in transforming the island's existing waterways into dual-function water sources and recreation areas without compromising on the quality of drinking water they produced.
To improve water quality, researchers at the new centre will study how plant and animal organisms use natural systems to minimise pollution.
But it is not just about science: The people will also be engaged to play a role in keeping the waterways here healthy, said Dr Yaacob.
By being open to the public, it is hoped that the water centre will whet the interest of the public in water technologies and issues.
Said Prof Babovic: 'If, one day, a 10-year-old tells me he wants to be an aquatic scientist, it will make my day.'
Vivian's visions from the Internet
Political messages in new media are susceptible to populist pitfalls, he says at RI dialogue
Jeremy Au Yong, Straits Times 3 Jul 08;
WHEN Dr Vivian Balakrishnan gazed into a crystal ball yesterday on how the Internet would change local politics, three visions popped up.
They were: more diverse views, louder political discourse and politicians delivering their messages in stylish, short multimedia packages, a phenomenon he labelled 'YouTube politics'.
But this future is fraught with pitfalls, the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports told students of Raffles Institution, which had invited him to give a talk on new media and its impact on politics.
As he spelt them out to the 2,000 students, he urged them to use their heads when reading online: 'In the midst of such an exponential growth in information, determining what is true or false is going to be extremely difficult... I have no easy answer except to ask you to be sceptical and to think and be careful.'
To illustrate one pitfall, he pointed to those who still believe that the sun revolves around the earth: 'Because you have an interconnected world, people with far-out ideas, or even wrong ideas, will be able to find someone who also believes the sun revolves around the earth and reinforces those beliefs.'
A diversity of views did not always end up in a 'fundamental truth'. New media allows wrong ideas to be reinforced, he said.
It also raises the pitch of political discourse owing to perceived anonymity online. 'Because you think you are not revealing yourself, a lot of people on the Internet engage in what I call virtual shouting.
'They want to gain attention and the best way...is to say something crazy, outrageous, scandalous, maybe even defamatory,' he said. 'It is a world in which more heat than light is generated.'
As for YouTube politics, the minister spelt out what he saw as the new demands on how a politician today has to communicate.
On radio, politicians had to be good orators. TV required good soundbites. New media adds another criterion: style, even in place of substance.
'It's no longer enough to talk, you must have moving images, you must have sound, you must have music. It must be packaged into no more than three minutes.
'If it's something true but boring...no one's going to watch it.'
But in opening their eyes to potential problems, Dr Balakrishnan stressed that he was not out to 'indict the future' but to get them to be more discerning.
'These are just trends, trends that you and I need to think about, need to understand, need to know how to use,' he said.
He returned to this message in the question-and-answer session that followed.
When asked how one should be discerning in the digital age, he told the students to 'read with your brain engaged'.
'I'm always flabbergasted when someone stands up and says: 'Oh I read in this blog that so-and-so did this.' We pronounce it as if it was a discovered truth.
'How many of us bothered to say: 'Wait, who said it, where was it published, are you sure it's accurate?' That whole layer of homework which is needed is not done.'
The remarks began a lively dialogue, duringwhich the minister fielded 16 questions ranging from political apathy to press freedom. One was on how the People's Action Party (PAP) viewed the challenge of new media.
He said the Government had no problems with it: 'There is no dirty little secret which the PAP is trying to hide from its people and that's why the Government is actually very comfortable with new media.
'That's why we are investing hundreds of millions in infrastructure which will connect us to the Internet, that's why we invest so much money into making sure every student, every family has a computer that's connected to the Internet.'
