The state of Singapore beaches: water quality issues

Water quality at all recreational beacheshas not got worse
Reply from S Satish Appoo, Director, Environmental Health Department
Today Online 30 Aug 08;

WE REFER to “Beach safety: What about the water quality?” (Aug 1) and “Clean up the coast” (Aug 7) by Mr John Lucas, as well as “The hard facts, please” (Aug 7) by Dr Mark Wong Vee-Meng.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) wishes to emphasise that the quality of the water at our recreational beaches, including Pasir Ris beach, has not deteriorated. Rather, we have adopted a more stringent recreational water quality standard based on the latest guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO guidelines serve as a framework to guide individual countries in the development of national standards that best suit their local context. The latest WHO guidelines have introduced a new microbial indicator, enterococcus. The NEA has drawn up the guidelines to be adopted in Singapore based on these WHO guidelines.

The new guidelines require at least 95 per cent of the water samples collected to have enterococcus levels of below 200 counts per 100 ml before a beach is considered suitable for primary contact activities. Pasir Ris beach is not able to meet this guideline and the public is therefore advised not to swim in the water there. However, we wish to clarify that 90 per cent of the samples from Pasir Ris beach for the past three years had enterococcus counts below 200 per 100 ml of water.

The presence of flotsam is not adefinitive indicator of the suitability of the beach water for primary contact activities. That said, the NEA agrees that it is important to address and minimise the impact of rubbish and flotsam on the beaches so as to ensure that beaches are clean and healthy spaces for the public to enjoy.

The NEA has regular clearing regimes for our beaches and the task is particularly challenging during the north-east and south-west monsoons, when more flotsam is washed ashore from the open seas. The NEA would also like to urge beach users to play their part to keep the beaches clean by disposing of their rubbish properly and not littering.

Mr Lucas mentioned that ships anchored offshore should be monitored for chemical and faecal pollution.

The Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) strictly enforces rules governing the prevention of pollution from ships calling at our port. These rules are based on the International Maritime Organization’s International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, or Marpol, and cover comprehensively oil, chemicals, harmful substances in packaged forms, sewage, garbage and air pollution from ships.

The MPA conducts regular surveillance of ships to ensure that they comply with the regulations and do not discharge waste into the water. In addition, an MPA-appointed contractor provides a daily garbage collection service for the ships anchored in our port.

On the health problems associated with recreational water, doctors are required to inform the Ministry of Health (MOH) of certain notifiable diseases, and the MOH will then undertake investigations into clusters of gastrointestinal and respiratory illness. The MOH has not received any reports of gastrointestinal and respiratory disease outbreaks linked to poor recreational water quality.

Water sampling and testing is currently conducted once a week at the monitored recreational beaches. This is in line with the practice in other cities and countries such as California in the United States, New Zealand and Canada, which also conduct weekly sampling.

We would also like to assure the public that the NEA will continue to issue advisories as and when the water quality at specific beaches fails to meet the guidelines and is hence not suitable for swimming.

We thank Mr Lucas and Dr Wong for their feedback.