Singapore: two more probable cases of Chikungunya fever detected

Channel NewsAsia 18 Jan 08;

SINGAPORE : Two more persons have been reported to be down with Chikungunya fever.

Both men have been sent to isolation wards at the Communicable Disease Centre.

This brings the total number of people infected with the virus to eight.

The Health Ministry (MOH) said all eight were staying in the same row of shophouses on Clive Street in Little India.

Since none of them have travelled overseas recently, it is likely that they contracted the disease in Singapore.

Of the eight, four have since recovered.

The rest are still under observation in the hospital.

Chikungunya fever, like dengue fever, is contracted after a person has been bitten by an infected Aedes mosquito.

The symptoms are similar for both and there is currently no vaccine or cure.

The first case of locally-transmitted Chikungunya fever in Singapore was reported on January 14.

Since then, MOH and the National Environment Agency (NEA) have screened close to 500 people living or working in the Clive Street area.

NEA officers have also inspected over 1,800 premises in the district.

A total of 35 indoor and outdoor mosquito breeding sites has been found and destroyed. - CNA/ms

Two more found with chikungunya fever
There are now 8 victims; 500 who live or work near them have been screened
Lee Hui Chieh & Amy Tan, Straits Times 19 Jan 08;

THE mosquito-borne, dengue-like illness chikungunya has hit two more people, who are now in hospital.

This brings to eight the total number of victims - four of whom are at the Communicable Disease Centre.

It is the first time the illness has broken out here.

Before this outbreak, there have been 13 other cases of chikungunya here, but all were imported.

Patients suffer symptoms similar to dengue: fever, joint pains, chills and nausea, which usually last three to 10 days.

There is no cure for this rarely fatal illness, which usually goes away on its own. Treatment involves medication for the fever and pain, and fluids to prevent dehydration.

The disease is spread by the Aedes mosquito, and not from human to human.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has yet to solve the mystery of how the outbreak here began.

Dr Lyn James, the director of MOH's communicable diseases division, reckons that someone who was infected overseas but fell sick here got the infections going.

This individual was probably bitten by mosquitoes before he recovered; the mosquitoes then spread the virus by biting other people, she said.

The authorities have yet to identify this 'Patient Zero', but have pulled out all the stops to stamp out the infection before it becomes entrenched.

After health officers were notified on Monday by a general practitioner that his patient, a 27-year-old man from Bangladesh, had contracted chikungunya, they have been screening those who live or work within a 150m radius of that patient.

Officers descended on Clive Street in Little India, where the man lives in a shophouse, and found five more victims living along that street. The latest two were also from there.

Health officers have so far sent blood samples from close to 500 people in that neighbourhood to the Environmental Health Institute of the National Environment Agency (NEA) for testing.

Those who have been hospitalised were those whose blood tests showed that they had the virus in their blood.

Getting them into hospital forestalls their being bitten by mosquitoes again, which could then spread the disease further.

Two of the four who have been hospitalised - one of whom is a visiting 38-year-old farmer from India, Vidwasekar Gnanasigamani - still have a fever. The remaining four patients have recovered.

The NEA has intensified efforts to wipe out mosquitoes in the Clive Street area.

Since Monday, it has inspected 1,879 premises and destroyed 35 breeding sites - 25 indoor and 10 outdoor. It has also fogged the area.

Mr H. Kumar, the landlord of the unit where the 27-year-old Bangladeshi and Mr Vidwasekar were staying, said the NEA officers did not find mosquito breeding sites there.

But they asked him to tidy up his ground-floor shop unit, where he stores waste paper and cardboard boxes for his recycling business.

Mr N. Veera, a shopkeeper at a printing materials shop along the same street, said that NEA officers had checked the toilets in his shop. He added that he was 'not worried about chikungunya because there are so many measures taken'.

MOH and NEA yesterday advised those who have been in the Clive Street area recently and are running a temperature to see a doctor.

They also urged people to check their premises daily to remove stagnant water that could breed mosquitoes.

Two more found likely to have chikungunya fever in Clive Street area
Today Online 19 Jan 08

Another two probable cases of chikungunya fever have been found at Clive Street, where Singapore's first cases of local transmission of the virus have occurred. This brings the number infected to eight.

All eight are at the Communicable Disease Centre for further medical assessment, and four have been admitted for isolation and management.

The virus is transmitted in the same way as dengue – through mosquitoes. All eight patients, who do not have a history of recent travel, lived within the same row of shophouses.

Since Jan 14, when the authorities were informed of the first case of chikungunya fever, the Health Ministry and the National Environment Agency's Environmental Health Institute have screened close to 500 people living or working in the Clive Street area.

The NEA has inspected 1,879 premises in the area. A total of 25 indoor breeding and 10 outdoor breeding sites were detected and destroyed. Residents and owners are advised to check their premises daily to remove any stagnant water that may breed mosquitoes.

Those who have been in the Clive Street area recently and have developed a fever are advised to consult their doctors. — TAN HUI LENG

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Singapore: Six workers become first to get chikungunya disease
Lee Hui Chieh, Straits Times 18 Jan 08;

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Trees dying in Bangladesh tiger refuge

Reuters 18 Jan 08;

KHULNA, Bangladesh (Reuters) - A species of tree that gave its name to Bangladesh's Sundarbans, home to the Royal Bengal tiger, is dying off following a severe cyclone late last year, forestry officials said on Friday.

The Sundari species of trees, from which the name Sundarbans was derived, are dying of a disease called "top-dying, that has intensified following the cyclone." The Sundarbans, some 400 km (250 miles) southwest of Dhaka, is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Cyclone Sidr struck the coast of the impoverished South Asian country on November 15 with winds of 250 kph (155 mph). It killed around 3,500 people, made millions homeless and destroyed a large part of the Sundarbans.

At least 60 percent of the 6,000 sq km (2,320 sq mile) mangrove swamps that are home to more than 400 Royal Bengal tigers was devastated by the cyclone.

Top-dying was already endemic among Sundari trees, but the disease has spread and intensified since the cyclone hit, threatening the existence of the forest, a senior forest official said.

Sundari trees constitute 70 percent of trees grown in the swampy forest. The trees grow up to 70 feet in height and are mostly used in boat building and house construction.

Experts have yet to find a cause of the top-dying disease, but they suspect that increased salinity may have something to do with the intensification of the disease.

"Gradual decreasing of oxygen in the soil of the forest may also be a factor for this (top-dying disease)," A.F. Fazlul Haq, a professor in the forestry department of the Khulna University told Reuters.

Some other experts and forest officials say the salinity has been increasing due to decreasing water flow across the forest, which is criss-crossed by a number of rivers and canals.

Water flow has decreased due to urbanization and the construction of dams further upstream on the rivers, most of which flow in from neighboring India before emptying into the Bay of Bengal.

The Sundarbans stretch 4,000 sq km (1,545 sq miles) into India's eastern state of West Bengal.

(Reporting by Enamul Haque; Writing by Nizam Ahmed; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

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Singapore Lunar New Year dinner prices set to rise by at least 10%

Channel NewsAsia 18 Jan 08;

SINGAPORE: Be prepared to dig a little deeper into your pockets this Lunar New Year.

Prices for restaurant dinners are set to rise by at least 10 per cent.

Seafood, eggs and duck meat are just some of the food items whose prices have increased by at least a fifth.

And though restaurants have tried to absorb the increase, they said customers should still expect to pay a little more.

The price of the suckling pig has seen the sharpest increase, which has more than doubled, from S$30 to S$80.

Restaurants said this is due to a shortage of supply from China.

Despite the price increases, restaurants said demand has not fallen. Some are already fully booked for the reunion dinner night. - CNA/vm

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PUB awards contract for NEWater plant at Changi to Sembcorp

Channel NewsAsia 18 Jan 08;

With the addition of this new plant, NEWater will meet 30 per cent of Singapore's current water needs by 2010.

SINGAPORE: PUB has awarded the contract for the fifth and largest NEWater plant at Changi to Sembcorp Utilities.

Under this Design-Build-Own-Operate agreement, Sembcorp will supply NEWater to PUB over a 25-year-old period from 2010 to 2035.

The Changi NEWater Plant which will be constructed within the Changi Water Reclamation Plant, and will have a production capacity of 50 million gallons per day.

Initially, it will have a capacity of 15 million gallons per day in 2009, which will be ramped up to 50 million gallons per day by 2010.

Its first-year price is S$0.29966 per cubic metre.

With the addition of this new plant, NEWater will meet 30 per cent of Singapore's current water needs by 2010.

The Changi NEWater Plant is the second NEWater project by the private sector.

In tandem with the construction of Changi NEWater Plant, PUB is also expanding the NEWater network of pipelines.

There are 20 tenders, worth over S$400 million, for the laying of 87 km of NEWater pipelines.

The completed pipeline will run from Changi NEWater Plant to Jurong, Tuas, Jurong Island and Sentosa. It will also be linked to existing NEWater pipelines in the Bedok, Seletar, Kranji and Ulu Pandan clusters. - CNA/ac

SembCorp to build Singapore's largest Newater facility
Shobana Kesava, Straits Times 19 Jan 08;

SEMBCORP Industries has been selected to build, own and operate Singapore's fifth - and largest - Newater plant in Changi for about $180 million.

When the Changi plant is fully operational in 2010, the national water agency PUB expects Newater to provide 30 per cent of Singapore's water needs. Of the balance, about 60 per cent will come from reservoirs and Johor, and 10 per cent from desalination.

The tender award to SembCorp was made yesterday by PUB, which said SembCorp offered the most competitive bid out of six firms that participated by agreeing to produce Newater for 29.966 cents per cu m in the first year.

SembCorp will supply Newater to PUB for 25 years from 2010 till 2035.

SembCorp already owns and operates 14 water facilities across the globe - on Singapore's Jurong Island, and in China, Britain and the United Arab Emirates.

When the Changi Newater plant is completed, SembCorp is expected to produce about four million cu m of water per day around the world.

SembCorp said its Changi Newater investment would be funded using a mix of bank borrowings and internal sources.

This is the second Newater project that the private sector has undertaken. The first was the Keppel Seghers Ulu Pandan Newater plant, which opened in March last year.

When fully operational, the Changi Newater plant will produce 228,000 cu m of Newater a day. This will make it the largest producer of recycled water, overtaking Ulu Pandan's output of 145,500 cu m a day.

Like Keppel Segher, SembCorp will design, build, own and operate the plant.

One innovative feature will be to have main process facilities on the rooftop of the water reclamation facility to save costs, PUB director Moh Wung Hee said

'The design saves on land costs and on laying long pipes to feed the treated used water from the reclamation plant to the Newater plant,' Mr Moh said.

The Changi water reclamation plant occupies 55ha - about 5.5 times the size of VivoCity. It will clean water to international standards before most of it is discharged into the Straits of Singapore and the rest is fed to the Newater plant.

Developed by CPG Corp, the facility has been designed to accommodate the Newater plant.

By the time of the plant's completion in 2010, PUB expects to have spent over $400 million to expand its network of Newater pipelines by 87km.

The completed pipeline will run from Changi Newater plant to Jurong, Tuas, Jurong Island and Sentosa. It will also link to existing Newater pipelines in the Bedok, Seletar, Kranji and Ulu Pandan clusters. Fifteen of a total of 20 expected tenders have been called since September last year.

Sembcorp bags $180m NEWater plant contract
Matthew Phan, Business Times 19 Jan 08;
Singapore's 5th and largest unit will produce 50m gallons a day by 2010

SEMBCORP Industries has secured a bid to design, build, own and operate what is to become Singapore's fifth and largest NEWater plant.

The plant in Changi will cost about $180 million and will produce 50 million gallons per day (mgd) of NEWater when fully operational by 2010, Sembcorp said yesterday.

PUB, the national water agency, said that Sembcorp won the bid in an open tender, having submitted the most competitive offer among six other companies.

'The tender attracted bids from established local and international companies with good track records in the water business,' said PUB.

Sembcorp's bid has a first-year price of $0.29966 per cubic metre of NEWater, it said.

This is the second NEWater project by the private sector. The first is the Keppel Seghers Ulu Pandan NEWater Plant, which has a capacity of 32 mgd.

The private sector is also responsible for Singapore's only desalination plant, the Singspring plant, which was built by Hyflux and is now held by CitySpring Infrastructure Trust.

The Changi plant will have an initial capacity of 15 mgd by 2009, which will be ramped up to 50 mgd by 2010.

Sembcorp will then supply NEWater to the PUB for 25 years from 2010 to 2035.

It will build the main facilities on the roof-top of the existing Changi Water Reclamation Plant, to save on land costs and additional piping costs.

The investment will be funded through a mix of bank borrowings and internal sources. It will have no material impact on earnings or net tangible assets per share of Sembcorp for the current financial year.

Sembcorp said that it would be managing a total of some four million cubic metres per day of water around the world when the Changi project is complete.

The utilities business, which includes water, contributed 43 per cent to Sembcorp's group turnover and 53 per cent to earnings for the first nine months of 2007.

The group currently operates the Fujairah Independent Water and Power Plant in the UAE, one of the world's largest desalination plants.

Other water management services to industrial customers globally include water recycling and treatment, and the supply of high-grade industrial water, demineralised water and cooling water.

Along with the Changi NEWater Plant, PUB is also expanding the NEWater network of pipelines, which will run from Changi NEWater Plant to Jurong, Tuas, Jurong Island and Sentosa. Fifteen of the 20 tenders have been called since September 2007.

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Best of our wild blogs: 18 Jan 08

Talk on the Living Shores of Singapore
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Chek Jawa: Death and Life in 2007
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A monkey on geosphere 2008
meaning of geography, life and Sheryl Crow's toilet paper suggestions on the leaf monkey blog

Fledglings: Triller and frogmouth
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Toasters deadlier than sharks?
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Seaweeds - A solution to the end of oil?
more about algae on the daily galaxy blog

Daily Green Actions: 17 Jan
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U.S. federal agency: Kill sea lions to protect salmon

Joseph B. Frazier, Associated Press Yahoo News 18 Jan 08;

A federal agency recommended killing about 30 sea lions a year at a Columbia River dam where the marine animals feast on salmon migrating upriver to spawn. By many estimates, the sea lions devour about 4 percent of spring runs. Fishermen and Columbia River tribes have urged action for years against the sea lions at Bonneville Dam.

The recommendation in the report released Thursday by NOAA Fisheries Service was short of what Oregon, Washington and Idaho had requested in 2006.

At least three of the upper Columbia River spring salmon runs that pass through the dam are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, most significantly the spring chinook salmon run.

Sea lions are attracted to the dam east of Portland because of the large number of fish that gather there to pass through the "fish ladders" — or openings in the structure that allow fish to continue swimming upstream to spawning grounds.

Sea lions are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, but are not considered threatened. An amendment to the 1972 law allows states to get permission to kill identifiable sea lions or seals that have "a significant negative impact" on at-risk salmon and steelhead. NOAA Fisheries can grant the states' requests under some conditions.

NOAA plans to take public testimony on four alternatives through Feb. 19 and make a decision in March. If the recommendation is implemented, a committee approved by NOAA would set standards for capturing or killing the sea lions.

The other alternatives were to take no action; to continue using such nonlethal weapons as rubber buckshot and large firecrackers, which has not been effective; or to kill all sea lions within about five miles of the dam, which could affect about 150 animals.

The last alternative is closer to what the states wanted. Opponents argue sea lions aren't the real problem, instead blaming predatory birds, deteriorating habitat and hydroelectric dams themselves.

Sharon Young, marine issues field director of the Humane Society of the United States, said it is not clear how the NOAA numbers are tied to impact on fish.

"There are a lot of very complex problems affecting the fish, and this will do little to help the fish," Young said. "It is not clear that this will do anything other than kill sea lions."

But leaders of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission said the recommendation is critically needed to protect salmon. The group's statement said some sea lions have "become adept at exploiting endangered salmon seeking to enter the fish ladder at Bonneville Dam."

A similar application was made in the 1990s when steelhead were being devoured by sea lions at Ballard Locks in Seattle.

Before an order to kill them went into effect, a public outcry resulted in a reprieve, and Sea World in Florida took three identified as troublemakers.

The sea lions had killed up to 65 percent of the winter steelhead at the locks linking Puget Sound with Union and Washington lakes, and the run has not fully recovered.

Read more!

Singapore: Six workers become first to get chikungunya disease

Lee Hui Chieh, Straits Times 18 Jan 08;

SIX people have become the first to catch a mosquito-borne, dengue-like illness here.

Concerned that the disease, chikungunya, could take root here like dengue, health and environment officials have swung into action to ensure it does not do so. They are checking everyone who lives or works within a 150m radius of the six cases.

Chikungunya first appeared here in 2006, but all cases since then - including the 10 last year - were imported ones. The six victims in this outbreak are all foreign nationals in their 20s and 30s from Bangladesh and India.

Four have already recovered; the rest were admitted to the Communicable Disease Centre (CDC) on Wednesday.

Like the dengue virus, the chikungunya virus is spread by the Aedes mosquito. A bite from a mosquito infected with the chikungunya virus brings on symptoms similar to dengue, such as fever, joint pains, chills and nausea, which last up to 10 days, though the joint pains may last weeks or even months. No treatment is available. The disease usually runs its course and goes away on its own.

Though rarely fatal, it has claimed lives in India and Reunion Island in recent years.

The death toll shows that chikungunya is not something that can be dismissed, said the CDC's clinical director, Associate Professor Leo Yee Sin.

The Health Ministry is still investigating how the outbreak here began. It was notified on Monday by a general practitioner that one of his patients, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi man, had tested positive for the chikungunya virus.

The man, ill since last Wednesday, had gone to the doctor the next day. He has not left Singapore since arriving here in 2005, and with the one-week incubation period of the virus, health officials realised he probably contracted it here.

They fanned out to screen and collect blood samples from people in Clive Street, next to Tekka Mall in Serangoon, where the man lives.

Five others, who have also not been out of the country in the past month, were found to have been infected and were taken to the CDC for checks.

One of them, Mr Vidwasekar Gnanasigamani, 38, a farmer from India, said in Tamil: 'On the first day, the pain was so bad that I couldn't walk. Now I'm better, but I still have a fever.'

Conditions here - the presence of the Aedes mosquito, and a population with no immunity to this disease - are ripe for chikungunya to become endemic, said Prof Leo.

The information at the moment shows the outbreak to be localised, said Dr Lyn James, director of the Health Ministry's communicable diseases division. But the ministry is going all out to track down all infected individuals 'to prevent the disease from taking a foothold in Singapore', she said.

From the immediate area around Clive Street, it has expanded screening to an area within a 150m radius of the street.

Almost 500 people have been screened in the last two days. Those found with the virus have been isolated in the CDC to prevent them from being bitten again by mosquitoes, which may spread the infection further.

The National Environment Agency has stepped up search-and-destroy operations for mosquitoes in the area around Clive Street and the rest of Little India. Since Monday, it has inspected 1,520 premises and found nine breeding sites.

Chikungunya victim: It started with sharp pain in ankles
Indian national soon felt pain all over his joints, and had fever
Lee Hui Chieh, Straits Times 18 Jan 08;

TUESDAY started as a day of celebration but ended in crippling pain for Mr Vidwasekar Gnanasigamani, a 38-year-old farmer from Tamil Nadu, India.

He had come here nearly a month ago to visit friends, and Tuesday was when he was in Bedok with them to celebrate Pongal, a traditional harvest festival for Tamils to give thanks for the blessings of the past year.

While travelling on the bus to return to the Little India shophouse where he was staying, a sharp pain seared his ankles.

In 15 minutes, it spread to his knees, elbows and wrists.

It was so painful that he could barely walk to the shophouse after getting off the bus. A trek that should have taken five minutes took him half an hour.

He said in Tamil: 'I walked very slowly, and had to sit down and rest after a while before walking again.'

He did not know it then, but joint pain is a classic symptom of chikungunya, a dengue-like disease spread by the Aedes mosquito.

The disease gets its name from the word in the Makonde language meaning 'that which bends up', a reference to the stooped posture that patients adopt to compensate for the severe pain in their joints.

Makonde is spoken along the border between Tanzania and Mozambique, where the disease first surfaced in 1955.

Joint pains aside, Mr Vidwasekar also sprang a high fever, another symptom.

He is one of six people here, all foreign nationals in their 20s and 30s, who have been who have been diagnosed with chikungunya this month.

Five of them, including him, were staying in the same shophouse.

They were picked up only after a 27-year-old man from Bangladesh, the third among them to fall sick, went to see a general practitioner who suspected that he had either dengue or chikungunya and sent him for a blood test.

When the result was positive for chikungunya, the GP informed the Health Ministry, which sent its officers to investigate.

All six men were taken to the Communicable Disease Centre on Wednesday.

Only Mr Vidwasekar and another man from Bangladesh were admitted because tests showed that they still had the virus in their blood and were potentially infectious.

As there is no treatment for chikungunya, they were given drugs for the fever and pain, and fluids to prevent dehydration.

Only Mr Vidwasekar is still running a temperature.

The father of two sons aged four and seven had been planning to travel to Malaysia the day he fell sick.

He said: 'Now, I just want to get well soon and go back to India.'

Chikungunya strikes Singapore
Tan Hui Leng, Today Online 18 Jan 08;

A day after Today reported about studies being done here on a hitherto little-known viral disease, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced that there are six confirmed cases of chikungunya fever, including the first likely case of local transmission.

A 27-year-old Bangladeshi man, who has not gone overseas for several months, has caught the virus the same way dengue is transmitted – through mosquitoes.

Prior to Monday, which was when MOH was notified, all cases of chikungunya reported here were contracted overseas. There were 10 such cases in Singapore in all of last year.

To keep the virus from gaining a foothold here, the National Environment Agency (NEA) is conducting intensive mosquito-control operations in the Clive Street area, where the patient resided, and will extend checks to cover Little India over the next few days.

All houses and shop premises are being checked and treated with insecticides, and inspections will carry on into the night, said the MOH and the NEA in a joint statement yesterday.

Meanwhile, screening done by the two agencies have found five other persons, all foreign nationals who have been in the country for at least a month, with chikungunya fever.

They have been sent to the Communicable Disease Centre for further medical assessment and two have been admitted for isolation.

Screening of residents and workers in the Clive Street area is continuing, even as investigations are in progress regarding the source of their infections.

"Unlike dengue, chikungunya is not an endemic disease in Singapore," said MOH's director of communicable diseases, Dr Lyn James.

This is why the authorities are stepping up protective measures.

An acute viral disease, chikungunya fever is caused by a virus of the same name. Symptoms include a sudden onset of fever, chills, headache, nausea, vomitting, and joint pain.

Some patients may develop a rash on the body and limbs. The illness is usually self-limiting and most symptoms last for three to 10 days.

The Bangladeshi man first developed symptoms of fever, body ache, joint pains and lethargy on Jan 8. Two days later, he sought treatment from a General Practitioner and a blood test showed that he had chikungunya. He is now being managed as an outpatient.

Another patient, Mr G Vidwasekar, who fell ill on Tuesday, told 938Live: "I was celebrating Pongal at my friend's place in Bedok. On my way back in a bus, I felt pain in my legs, mostly on my ankles. When I got off the bus, I felt very weak and could not walk at all. I had to walk and stop along the way. Normally I take five minutes to walk back, but that night, I took half an hour."

There is no specific drug treatment for the chikungunya virus and treatment usually includes bed rest, fluid replacement and medication for fever and pain relief. Hospitalisation may be required for more severe cases.

Currently, there is also no effective vaccine for chikungunya fever although the Singapore Immunology Network is working with the NEA and MOH to develop one, as TODAY had reported.

MOH and NEA has advised those who have been in the area recently and have developed a fever to consult their doctors.

"Like dengue fever, is a mosquito-borne disease and the best way to prevent chikungunya fever is to take precautionary measures to prevent mosquito breeding," said MOH and NEA in a joint press release yesterday.

"Persons infected with chikungunya fever should be isolated from further mosquitoes bites (by staying indoors and sleeping under a mosquito net during the first few days of illness) to reduce the risk of further transmission of the virus."

Like dengue, chikungunya fever is found in many countries. Recent outbreaks have occurred in Africa and as close to home as Malaysia and Indonesia.

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Strong demand expected for CNG cars

Christopher Tan, Straits Times 18 Jan 08;

Dealers gear up for sales with 2 new CNG stations set to open; they also plan to introduce cars that can run on both gas, petrol

WITH a pair of compressed natural gas stations poised to open within the next two months, car dealers are gearing up to sell vehicles that can run on the cheap, clean-burning fuel.

General Motors, Ford, Fiat and Citroen dealers are working to introduce cars fitted with kits which will allow them to run on either the gas - known as CNG - or petrol.

Meanwhile, some importers have already started selling such vehicles, including Car Times in Kampong Ubi.

'With petrol prices so high, I think demand for CNG cars will be very strong,' said managing director Eddie Loo.

New cars which run on gas are eligible for a 40 per cent rebate on registration fees.

This translates to savings ranging from $6,500 for a Toyota Corolla to $81,000 for a Bentley Continental GT. Retrofitting the cars to run on gas starts at around $3,000.

Compressed gas is also much cheaper than conventional petrol.

It costs about 80 cents for the equivalent of a litre, versus $1.90 for petrol. For a car that travels 20,000km a year, that translates to about $2,000 in savings.

A gas-powered car emits about 20 per cent less carbon dioxide than one that runs on petrol. It also produces less carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons.

Mr Alvyn Ang, general manager of operations at Cycle & Carriage, said his company has converted one Citroen C5 for a feasibility study, and findings have been favourable.

'It's feasible,' he said, but did not reveal when he would start selling CNG Citroens.

Vantage Automotive managing director Say Kwee Neng is exploring the option of converting the Ford S-Max seven-seater.

'We're looking at the technicalities, and are in talks with Ford Motor,' he said. 'From an environmental perspective, it is really encouraging.'

Fiat distributor TTS Eurocars plans to bring in a range of bi-fuel Panoramas in June.

While authorised agents are mulling things over, parallel importers have already started selling converted cars. One, Pinnacle Motors, collected about 80 orders over the weekend, but is facing a dilemma: a shortage of conversion kits.

Meanwhile, customers who have collected their new 'green' cars seem happy.

Businessman Frank Phuan, 31, bought a bi-fuel Toyota Harrier SUV from Car Times for $105,000, some $7,000 less than a petrol-only model.

'It's a pretty good deal,' he said. 'I live in Jurong East, so I'm just five to 10 minutes away from the new CNG station coming up in Jalan Buroh.' The station is expected to open later this month, with another one coming up in Mandai Link next month.

He said a full tank of gas costs him $10 and gets him close to 200km, whereas a tank of petrol costs him $125 and gives him about 500km.

The Land Transport Authority warned that converted cars must comply with technical requirements on safety, performance and emissions. These requirements are issued to the companies doing the conversions.

'It is an offence to modify the fuel system of a vehicle without LTA's approval,' an LTA spokesman said. 'First-time offenders are liable to a fine of up to $1,000 or a jail term of up to three months.'

The two new CNG refuelling stations coming up in the next few weeks are just the start. Industry observers expect another to start pumping by the third quarter.

The authorities envisage six in the near term.

That should be good news to the 1,000 or so owners of gas vehicles here.

There is currently only one station in Singapore and it is on tightly guarded Jurong Island.

Read more!

Miles to go before Singapore's transport is world-class

Matthew Phan, Business Times 18 Jan 08;
Reach of subway track per square kilometre is too low, study claims

Singapore's garden city concept does little for nature and biodiversity.

(SINGAPORE) Singapore ranks poorly among global cities for the reach of its public transport system, according to a recent comparative study of 50 cities by Ooi Giok Ling from the National Institute of Education.

The Republic ranked 31st in terms of total length of public transportation lines per 1,000 people, Prof Ooi's study shows.

The mediocre ranking is not a function of the country's small size, said Kog Yue Chong, adjunct professor at the National University of Singapore, who presented Prof Ooi's findings on her behalf at a public seminar on Wednesday.

Singapore has just 0.1 km of subway track per square kilometre, compared with 0.4 km for Hong Kong, 1 km for London, and 4 km for Paris, said Dr Kog.

'We still have a very long way to go in terms of MRT transport. To reduce the car population, we need very good public transport,' he said.

BT requested a copy of the study but did not get a reply. Prof Ooi is on medical leave. The findings reported here are from the presentation slides.

Out of the 50 cities, Singapore also ranked 37th in terms of total length of reserved public transportation routes per thousand people.

Singapore ranked 20th in terms of total number of public transport vehicles per million people.

It also ranked 44th in terms of daily trips made by foot per person, and 8th in terms of daily trips made on public transport per person.

The study covered major cities in Europe, the US, Australia, Japan, China, India, South-east Asia and the Middle East. The European cities did especially well, said Dr Kog.

He also said Singapore's garden city concept does little for nature and biodiversity - a view echoed by many environmentalists here, including the Nature Society and its president Geh Min.

Instead, planners ought to think about urban biodiversity. Part of this, ironically, is to consider packing more people into a smaller area.

Cities should consider having higher population density, rather than expanding the urban area, said Dr Kog.

Singapore's density versus that of other cities is 'actually not high', even though Singapore's density is high on a country-wide basis, he said.

According to the City Mayors website, a Jan 2007 study ranked Singapore as the world's 29th densest city. The cities denser than Singapore were all from developing countries like India (Mumbai is the world's densest city), China and Latin America.

Within South-east Asia, Manila, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh were also reported as denser than Singapore.

Dr Kog, who is president of East West Engineering Consultants, also said many buildings in Singapore are built in ways that force occupants to rely on air-conditioning, due to lack of ventilation.

The country cannot mandate against use of air-conditioning, but could legislate for building conditions that are less dependent on air-conditioning, he said.

Read more!

Singapore's traffic woes are minor: US don

Urban planning specialist says local policies have kept roads here flowing and gridlock-free
Maria Almenoar, Straits Times 18 Jan 08;

MOTORISTS grumpy about being stuck in traffic jams should count themselves lucky that gridlock does not happen here, an American urban planning specialist said.

Singapore has, through vehicle ownership and usage policies, managed to give owners the freedom to drive their cars amid just limited amounts of congestion, said Professor Alan Altshuler, who teaches urban policy and planning at Harvard University in the United States.

His practical experience in managing transport issues comes from having served as Massachusetts' first Secretary of Transportation from 1971 to 1975.

Of Singapore roads, he observed: 'Occasionally one does get caught in traffic jams near downtown and at peak periods. But it's amazing how most of the roads are flowing pretty freely even during the peak hours.'

He gave The Straits Times an exclusive interview on Tuesday, ahead of his public lecture at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy this evening, titled 'Lessons Not To Learn From American Cities'.

Referring to Singapore's use of the Electronic Road Pricing system, high fuel taxes and the certificate of entitlement scheme to balance ownership and usage, Prof Altshuler said: 'Virtually no one else has these tools.'

He added that these policy tools could be tweaked to adjust to a growing population of people and cars and increasing affluence.

Turning to Japan, he noted that despite its high level of car ownership, usage levels were low because high fuel prices and congestion kept cars off the road.

Saying he was struck by the common sight of Japanese in residential neighbourhoods polishing their cars, he quipped: 'In Japan, they buy their cars to polish them, not to drive them.'

His public lecture will explain why the American system is not the way to go either.

No real solution has been found for congestion there. Cities just grow larger.

He explained: 'The principle has been to sprawl. The more roads you create, the lower the density. Traffic spreads out...That's not been a conscious policy for congestion control. That strategy is no longer as effective as it used to be.'

The average American's heavy reliance on his car has also made the country's average per-head energy usage and greenhouse emissions six times that of the world average, and eight times the Asian average.

And it is not true to say that Americans own that many cars because they can afford to, Prof Altshuler added.

The US and high-income Asian cities such as Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore have comparable regional Gross Domestic Products per capita: US$31,400 (S$45,012) in the US versus the US$31,600 average in the high-income Asian cities.

Yet, car usage patterns are so different across these cities.

The figure for passenger kilometre per capita - how many kilometres of road each person uses - is 18,150 in the US but only 3,610 in the Asian cities.

Prof Altshuler pointed to historical factors like the US' commitments to private property, capitalism and taking the lead in motor-vehicle production among the reasons for its problem.

The concern now is whether emerging economic powerhouses such as China and India will follow the US model or that of high-income Asian countries such as Japan and Singapore, he said.

Read more!

NParks searching for tree in crash

Tracy Sua, Straits Times 18 Jan 08;

A DAY after a 2m branch crashed straight through a woman's windscreen as she drove along Bedok South Road, narrowly missing her, the authorities took her back to the spot - to look for the tree in question.

To get to the bottom of how it happened, National Parks Board (NParks) officers took the driver, Madam Jenny Yeh, 47, tree-hunting along the road yesterday.

NParks Section Head of Parks Kenny Khoo examined the 10m- to 12m-tall rain trees along the stretch, but Madam Yeh could not pin down the exact tree from which the branch had plunged into the car.

His officers will inspect the trees although, at first glance, they seemed healthy, he added.

Trees along expressways and heritage roads are inspected once a year, said NParks.

This is done once in 18 months for those along major roads and once in two years for those along minor roads or streets with less traffic.

NParks said on Monday and Tuesday , it received reports of seven cases of fallen branches.

Botanist Hugh Tan told The Straits Times that while rain trees are strong, their branches spread quite far out from the trunk.

Associate Professor Tan, deputy director of the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research in the National University of Singapore, said in the case of a diseased or dead branch, fungi would have affected it, weakening the limb.

But even healthy trees are not immune, he said.

'A branch is like a sail. With a certain amount of water and wind pressure, there is a net weight. And if the branch cannot bear the load, it will break.'


Fallen-branch incident was unforeseeable
Straits Times Forum 18 Jan 08;

WE REFER to the letter, 'Who pays for damage from fallen branch?' (ST, Jan 9), from Mr C. S. Mahadevan.

To ensure that the trees along roads and expressways under the charge of the National Parks Board (NParks) are healthy, our team of arborists inspect and prune them regularly.

However, there are elements of nature beyond our control and it is not possible to eliminate tree-related incidents altogether. Extraneous factors such as strong wind and heavy rain can cause branches of even healthy trees to fall.

Notwithstanding this, all claims for damage caused by fallen trees are assessed by our third-party insurer based on their facts and merits. In this case, our insurer has assessed that the incident was unforeseeable and was not caused by NParks' neglect, as the trees along the AYE where the incident occurred are healthy and had been maintained regularly.

In addition, there had been moderate to heavy rain and strong wind during the two days prior to the incident and on the day of the incident itself. Our insurer's assessment is that this combination of natural elements could have caused the branch to fall.

We would also like to clarify that our officer who met Mr Mahadevan after the incident had advised him to submit the relevant information to enable NParks to look into the matter. He did not give advice on whether Mr Mahadevan should repair his car or not.

Mr Mahadevan may contact NParks on 1800-4717300 or First Capital Insurance on 6854-3930 to discuss the matter further.

Tee Swee Ping
Assistant Director, Streetscape
National Parks Board

R. Athappan
Chief Executive
First Capital Insurance Ltd

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Starfish Swarm Devouring Corals in Indonesia

Dave Hansford, National Geographic News 17 Jan 08;

"Reefs can cope with periodic disturbances if they are healthy. If they've got good fish populations, good water quality, and good coral, they can bounce back within 10 to 15 years."

Predatory starfish are swarming over one of the world's most diverse coral reef ecosystems, researchers announced, threatening the health of reefs throughout the Indo-Pacific region.

Crown-of-thorns starfish, named for the long spines covering their bodies, feed on corals by spreading their stomachs over the animals living inside, then secreting enzymes that liquefy the corals' tissue.

"They prefer certain species and take them first, then they'll eat the others later," said Alison Green, a marine scientist with the nonprofit Nature Conservancy.

The starfish are found naturally throughout the Indo-Pacific. But a recent survey of reefs off the Indonesian island of Halmahera revealed that the numbers of the predators in some areas are double those that exist in a healthy reef.

Halmahera, the largest island in Indonesia's Maluku group, lies within the "coral triangle," which has been described as a global center of marine biodiversity.

The triangle spans eastern Indonesia, parts of Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Timor, and the Solomon Islands (see a map of the region).

The localized starfish outbreak, experts say, could be an early warning of more widespread reef decline.

"Imagine the most beautiful coral reef with lots of three-dimensional structure, lots of color, and lots of fish," Green said.

"Then [imagine] the same place, except that it is dead, covered in black algae, and the fish are gone. Crown-of-thorns can do that."

Huge Outbreak

Andrew Baird is a scientist with the Australian Research Council's (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

He was part of the starfish survey team, jointly led by the ARC center and the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

The team found between 300 and 400 crown-of-thorns starfish within a hectare (2.5 acres) of reef around Halmahera, Baird said.

"On [Australia's] Great Barrier Reef, we define an outbreak as 200 animals per hectare," Baird said.

High nutrient levels due to agricultural fertilizer runoff were most likely responsible for the population boom, he added.

"It stimulates blooms of microalgae—plankton—and the larvae of the crown-of-thorns starfish, under those conditions, survive very well," he said.

"In normal years, perhaps one in a million [starfish larvae] might survive. In one of these years, maybe a hundred in a million survive. You get huge recruitment."

Overfishing of the starfish's natural predators, such as triggerfish and the giant triton mollusk, likely worsened the situation.

Survey teams also found evidence of reef blasting—a practice that uses explosives to stun fish or collect coral as construction material.

"A lot of people rely on the reefs for their livelihood and their food. Without healthy reefs, it could result in serious economic hardship," Baird said.

(Related news: "Coral Reefs Vanishing Faster Than Rain Forests" [August 7, 2007].)

Bounce Back

For now, the experts noted, certain species on the reef show healthy enough populations that the ecosystem could recover.

"I think the answer lies in good management to prevent the outbreaks in the first place," the Nature Conservancy's Green said.

"We need to be particularly careful about how we manage the land and fisheries in those areas."

A network of marine protected areas, she said, combined with land-use and fisheries reforms, would ensure the survival of the coral triangle.

"Reefs can cope with periodic disturbances if they are healthy. If they've got good fish populations, good water quality, and good coral, they can bounce back within 10 to 15 years."

Coral reefs threatened by flesh-eating starfish
Paul Eccleston, The Telegraph 17 Jan 08;

One of the world's richest and most precious coral reef systems is under threat from a voracious predator.

The notorious Crown of thorns starfish has been found in large numbers by scientists in Halmahera, Indonesia, at the heart of the so-called 'Coral Triangle', which lies between Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

It is regarded as the jewel in the crown of coral reef biodiversity and is considered the genetic fountainhead for coral diversity found on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Ningaloo and other reefs in the region.

The starfish eats the delicate coral polyps which form the thin film of flesh on the outside of the coral skeleton.

After attaching itself it spreads its stomach over the coral and releases a flood of digestive juices. The polyp flesh is liquified and then absorbed by the starfish. When it has cleaned the coral of flesh it moves on leaving behind just the calcium carbonate skeleton.

Scientists think the outbreak may have been caused by the poor quality of the water and could be an early warning of widespread reef decline.

Surveys of Halmahera by the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies confirmed that while its reefs are still 30-50 per cent richer than those nearby, some areas were almost completely destroyed.
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"The main cause of damage to the corals was the Crown of thorns starfish," Dr Andrew Baird of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

"We witnessed a number of active outbreaks of this coral predator. There was little to suggest that the reefs have been much affected by climate change as yet: the threats appear far more localised."

The scientists found there were still healthy populations of certain species around the reefs and believe there is still time to reverse the damage.

"The good news is that the reef fish assemblages are still in very good shape" said Tasrif Kartawijaya from WCS-IP.

"We saw Napoleon wrasse and bumphead parrot fish at almost every site. So these reefs have the capacity to recover if we can address the current threats."

As well as the damage caused by the starfish the survey found evidence of explosives being used for fishing during a break down of law and order following communal violence in 2000-2003.

In the same period many reef lagoons were mined of their corals for use in construction, an activity encouraged by the Indonesian military.

At the Climate Change Conference in Bali the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) was announced by six regional governments offering renewed hope for the reefs in the region but little detail was given of how the initiative would operate and whether research would play a central role.

"We are disappointed research is yet to be fully considered in the CTI. The success of large marine parks, like the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, is largely due to the primary role science plays in understanding what's going on, so managers can make good decisions," said Dr Baird.

"It isn't enough just to document the diversity of the region. Large scale research is required to understand the Coral Triangle ecosystems and work out how best to respond to threats such as poor water quality and over exploitation," Dr Campbell added.

Coral reefs are the largest living structures on Earth, and there are more 4,000 species of reef fish, making coral reefs the home of a quarter of all fish species found on the planet. They are of enormous economic importance with 500m people depending on them for survival. They generate billions of pounds per year through tourism.

Coral reefs represent the most biologically diverse habitat on earth and are entirely self-sufficient generating and recycling all the nutrients they need but they are under serious threat with 10 per cent already dead and another 70 per cent threatened by human activity.

RELATED ARTICLES

Scientists sound alarm over Crown-of-Thorns starfish threat in Indonesia, Coral Triangle
Yahoo News 16 Jan 08;

Crown-of-thorns: a nasty star?
on the singapore celebrates the reefs blog

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Philippines Vows Beauty Over Building in Tourism Drive in reefs

Carmel Crimmins, PlanetArk 18 Jan 08;

MANILA - The Philippines' drive to attract more tourists must be balanced against environmental concerns after sewage spills and flooding triggered a construction halt on its most famous beach resort, a senior official said on Thursday.

Lito Atienza, the environment secretary, ordered all building on Boracay, a tiny island south of Manila renowned for its powdery white sands, to stop for six months after rapid development overwhelmed facilities and threatened to destroy the island's pristine reputation.

Sewage was released into the sea and, with most beachfront areas already gobbled up, even the island's forests were being cut down to make way for more hotels.

"If we don't control development on Boracay island and in fact on all the other islands we may lose the very essence of attraction," said Atienza. "The uncontrolled development that has poured into the island has overloaded it.

Nearly 600,000 tourists visited Boracay last year, nearly four times the number of 10 years ago, and the Philippines has a goal of raising arrivals there by 10 percent each year.

Atienza said after July construction may be banned in some parts of the island, where a Shangri-La resort is being built, and authorities will be scrutinising building permits.

Last year was a record for Philippine tourism with over 3 million arrivals, many of them overseas Filipinos but also hundreds of thousands of Koreans, Americans and Japanese. Tourism expenditure was tagged at nearly US$5 billion.

The Philippines wants to attract US$5.8 billion in visitor spending this year and fierce competition over prized lots in Boracay resulted in a deadly shootout on the island this week. A former soldier was killed and a teenager wounded.

Long-time visitors to Boracay have complained about overcrowding but large numbers of people do not bother Atienza, a devout Catholic and the chairman of the Philippines' pro-life movement.

"It's not the number of people who destroy the environment, it's the abuse of some and the government allowing it," said the father of eight.

Environmentalists who argue that the Earth cannot cope with rapid population growth get short shrift from the 66 year old, who says illegal logging rather than human settlement is the main reason for landslides.

"They are telling them (poor people), don't have children any more because look at what happened, landslides happened because of your numbers. No, no, no it's not the number of the poor it's the super rich who have committed these landslides and calamities."

Activists were aghast when Atienza, formerly the mayor of Manila, was appointed environment chief last year. He was dubbed the "butcher of Arroceros" when he ordered the closure of Arroceros Park in Manila in 2003 to make way for new buildings.

Atienza said the trees were replanted elsewhere and insists that while his brief also includes promoting the mining sector his priority is always the environment.

"We have to always primarily consider the environment, the natural beauty of an area. All else will have to come in second."

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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World's Largest Shark Species at Risk, Expert Says

Stefan Lovgren, National Geographic News 17 Jan 08;

This is the fifth story in a continuing series on the Megafishes Project. Join National Geographic News on the trail with project leader Zeb Hogan as he tracks down the world's largest fishes.

From a spotter airplane buzzing off the coast of Baja California, it's hard to miss the dark shape of a giant whale shark moving through the emerald green waters below.

Whale sharks are the world's largest living fish species, growing up to 40 feet (12 meters) long. They move near the surface, feeding on the plankton and krill that mass in these waters during the winter months. The Bay of La Paz, though busy with fishing boats and divers, is a safe zone for these rare and threatened animals.

But around the world, shark populations have declined dramatically in recent years, mainly due to overfishing.

Most at risk are migratory sharks, including whale sharks, which are known to travel more than 8,000 miles (12,875 kilometers) across the Pacific Ocean, from Mexico to the Tonga Islands, according to Zeb Hogan, a fisheries biologist with the University of Reno in Nevada.

"Every time a migratory shark moves from one spot to another, there's a greater chance that it might be targeted by fishermen or subject to habitat destruction," Hogan said.

Giant Creatures

Of the more than 1,000 species of sharks and rays, 145 are known to be migratory.

Eighteen percent of these thousand species are threatened with extinction, according to Hogan, compared to 45 percent of the migratory sharks and rays.

At a UN-sponsored conference on migratory sharks held in the Seychelles last month, three species—whale sharks, basking sharks, and great white sharks—were singled out as being in urgent need of protection.

It is only in recent years that targeted fishing of whale sharks has been outlawed in countries like Taiwan and India.

"While whale sharks may be protected [in some national waters], once they move 200 miles [320 kilometers] off the coast they are in the high seas, where fisheries remain almost completely unregulated," Hogan said.

Hogan leads the Megafishes Project, a three-year effort funded by the National Geographic Society to document the 20-plus species of freshwater fish that measure at least 6.5 feet (2 meters) in length or 220 pounds (100 kilograms) in weight.

Whale sharks are not a freshwater species, but Hogan has come to La Paz, on the Gulf of California, to learn more about these giant creatures, because they face many of the same threats that large fish living in lakes and rivers around the world encounter.

"Large freshwater fish like the Mekong giant catfish share some of the same life-history traits with these large migratory sharks," he said.

"They live a long time, don't reproduce until a late age, and often need vast areas to survive.

"This makes them more vulnerable to threats like overfishing and habitat destruction," he added.

Critical Habitat

Deni Ramirez Macias is a doctoral student at the Northwestern Center for Biological Research in La Paz, who studies whale sharks.

She has been tagging and taking tissue samples of whale sharks in the Bay of La Paz and comparing them with larger populations found around Holbox Island, near Cancun in the Gulf of Mexico.

The results show that the two populations are genetically different from each other.

Photographing the whale sharks, whose patterns of spots on their backs are unique to each individual, also helps scientists identify the animals to learn more about their movement and habits.

"We know for example that 30 percent of the sharks return each year to the Bay of La Paz," Ramirez said.

"We see juveniles aggregating in the coastal waters here, … and we also see pregnant females.

"We think that the southern waters of the Gulf of California is like a nursery or feeding area for juveniles … and therefore we have to make a big effort to protect and conserve this critical habitat for the whale sharks," she added.

Scientists have also enlisted the public's help in the photo identification of whale sharks.

Brad Norman is the director of ECOCEAN, a marine conservation organization based in Perth, Australia, which runs a Web-based photo-ID library that tracks whale sharks around the world.

Divers are encouraged to submit any photos they take of whale sharks to the Web site, which uses a computer program originally developed by NASA to identify the sharks.

"We'd like to think of this program as citizen science," Norman said.

"You can be a tourist or a member of the general public and help us identify individual whale sharks around the globe, and from that we can understand more about their numbers and their movement worldwide."

Renewable Resource

In La Paz—and many other places around the world—whale sharks are sparking a boom in ecotourism.

Alex Antoniou is the La Paz field director for the Shark Research Institute, a Princeton, New Jersey-based organization that hosts tourist divers on research expeditions.

"Shark ecotourism is a renewable resource and an annual source of income," Antoniou said.

"It creates a value for the shark as a living species as opposed to one that you find in the market."

Despite their giant size, whale sharks are harmless to divers and snorkelers. Since the fish feed near the surface and swim slowly, tourists can usually get close-up, uninterrupted looks at the creatures.

"To swim with these sharks is breathtaking," said David Kaplowitz, a diving enthusiast from Austin, Texas, who visited La Paz to swim with whale sharks for the first time.

"It's like a spiritual experience to be with these animals in their natural habitat."

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Shanghai to build 'green' island out of construction waste

Straits Times 18 Jan 08;

SHANGHAI plans to build an artificial island shaped like a magnolia that can house up to 80,000 people, according to media reports.

The magnolia is the city's official flower.

Local newspapers quoted an official of the Shanghai Municipal Ocean Bureau as saying that the island in Hangzhou Bay would be a sustainable community by the sea, the South China Morning Post reported.

The newspaper said that under the joint plan by the bureau and the district government of Fengxian, the 65,000 sq m project would be built using construction waste.

The island's electricity would be generated by wind and wave power, and its drinking water provided through desalination technology.

Shanghai produces about 37,000 tonnes of construction waste every day, which account for 30 per cent of its total solid waste.

'The goal is to make it an advanced city with international standards,' said bureau official Pang Zengdi.

The reports said an expert panel had endorsed the plan but did not outline a timetable for work on the island.

Last October, a Shanghai-based real estate developer bought one of the 300 artificial islands in Dubai's The World property project for US$28 million (S$40 million). The island was named after Shanghai.

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Rising Seas Threaten China's Sinking Coastal Cities

Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press National Geographic News 17 Jan 08;

Sea levels off Shanghai and other Chinese coastal cities are rising at an alarming rate, leading to contamination of drinking water supplies and other threats, China's State Oceanic Administration reported Thursday.

Waters off the industrial port city of Tianjin, 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of Beijing, rose by 7.72 inches (20 centimeters) over the past three decades, the administration said.

Seas off the business hub of Shanghai have risen by 4.53 inches (11.5 centimeters) over the same period, the report said.

Administration experts said global climate change and the sinking of coastal land due to the pumping of ground water were the major causes behind rising water levels.

Salt in the Aquifer

"Sea level rises worldwide cannot be reversed, so Chinese city officials and planners must take measures to adapt to the change," Chen Manchun, an administration researcher, was quoted as saying on the central government's official web site.

Globally rising seas threaten to submerge low-lying island groups, erode coastlines, and force the construction of vast new levees. Scientists have warned that melting of the vast glaciers of Greenland will cause a significant rise in sea levels.

Higher sea levels and sinking land caused by dropping water table levels complicate Shanghai's already difficult task of providing safe water supplies to its 20 million people due to salt water leaching into its aquifer, the administration said.

Along China's coastline, sea levels have risen by an average of 3.54 inches (9 centimeters), while average coastal water temperatures were slightly warmer, the report said.

Waters levels have risen more quickly in the country's north, the report said, but gave no reasons for the disparity.

Meanwhile, the administration's China 2007 Sea Environmental Quality Report, also released this week, showed a marked deterioration in coastal water quality as a result of pollution from onshore human activity.

China's coastal cities hit by rise in sea levels
Straits Times 18 Jan 08;

Waters off Shanghai surged by 115mm in 30 years, contaminating water supplies
BEIJING - SEA levels off Shanghai and other Chinese coastal cities are rising at an alarming rate, leading to contamination of drinking water supplies and other threats, China's State Oceanic Administration reported yesterday.

It said waters off the industrial port city of Tianjin, 100km south-east of Beijing, rose by 196mm over the past three decades.

Seas off the business hub of Shanghai rose by 115mm over the same period, the report added.

Administration experts said global climate change and the sinking of coastal land due to the pumping of groundwater were the major causes of the rising water levels.

'Sea level rises worldwide cannot be reversed, so Chinese city officials and planners must take measures to adapt to the change,' Mr Chen Manchun, an administration researcher, was quoted as saying on the central government's official website.

Globally, rising seas threaten to submerge low-lying island groups, erode coastlines and force the construction of vast new levees.

Some scientists have warned that melting of the vast glaciers of Greenland could cause a 4m rise in sea levels in the centuries to come.

Higher sea levels and the sinking of coastal land further complicate Shanghai's already difficult task of providing safe water supplies to its 20 million people due to salt water leaching into its aquifer, the administration said. An aquifer is an area of permeable rock which absorbs and holds water.

Along China's 18,000km of coastline, sea levels have risen by an average of 90mm, and average coastal water temperatures were slightly warmer, the report said.

Water levels have risen more quickly in the country's north, the report said, but it gave no reasons for this.

Meanwhile, the administration's China 2007 Sea Environmental Quality Report, also released this week, showed a marked deterioration in coastal water quality as a result of pollution from human activity onshore.

An Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report last month warned that Asia's massive delta cities have the most to fear from catastrophic storm floods driven by climate change.

Out of 136 port cities assessed around the world for their exposure to once-in-a-century coastal flooding, 38 per cent are in Asia and 27 per cent are located in deltas, the OECD said.

As many as 150 million people in the world's big coastal cities are likely to be at risk from flooding by the 2070s - more than three times the number now, according to the report.

Climate change, population growth and urban development will mean that the number at risk will rise from the current 40 million and total property and infrastructure exposure is forecast to rise to US$35 trillion (S$50 trillion) - 9 per cent of projected global gross domestic product.

The OECD report, which was put together by disaster modelling firm Risk Management Solutions and leading scientists, is the first part of the largest-ever study on urban coastal flood exposure.

The report analysed the vulnerability now and in the future of 136 port cities to a one-in-a-century major flood.

The 10 cities most at risk, in terms of exposed population, listed are Mumbai, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Miami, Ho Chi Minh City, Kolkata, Greater New York, Osaka-Kobe, Alexandria and New Orleans.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS

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North Sea fish species up due to warming

Charles Clover, The Telegraph 17 Jan 08;

There are more species of fish in the North Sea as a result of rising water temperatures, but the changes are unlikely to please fishermen overall, scientists have said.

The reason is that while the number of bottom-dwelling fish species has increased by half since 1985, in response to a temperature increase of almost 1.5 °C, most of the new additions are of little commercial value.

Some of the new species, such as anchovies and red mullet, are a welcome addition to trawler catches but this will not compensate for the large valuable species such as wolffish, spurdog and ling which are moving to the north, according to the study published in the journal Global Change Biology.
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The authors, Jan Hiddink of Bangor University in Wales and Remment ter Hofstede of Wageningen IMARES in the Netherlands, say similar changes are probably under way in other northern waters.

'This research will help us understand and predict what the effect of climate change on biodiversity will be.

"Fishery managers will have to adapt their practices to a fishery with many small species rather than a few large species', according to Dr Hiddink from Bangor university.

Increases in fish species richness depend on easy migration of fish species from the south, and higher species numbers to the south. According to EU scientists, though, the Bay of Biscay anchovy has been significantly overfished.

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Decide on polar bears first, then oil: lawmaker

Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters 17 Jan 08;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government must decide first if polar bears are threatened by climate change before it opens part of their icy habitat to oil drilling, the head of a congressional environment panel said on Thursday.

The decision whether to list the big Arctic bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act was supposed to happen last week but was postponed for up to 30 days.

That means it could come after the government offers 29.4 million acres in the Chukchi Sea off the Alaskan coast in a sale of oil leases on February 6.

"Rushing to allow drilling in polar bear habitat before protecting the bear would be the epitome of this administration's backward energy policy, a policy of drill first and ask questions later," Rep. Ed Markey said at a hearing of the House (of Representatives) Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, which he chairs.

Testifying on the matter were two key Bush administration officials: Dale Hall, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service that has been investigating the polar bear's status, and Randall Luthi, director of the Minerals Management Service, which announced the oil lease sale last week.

World polar bear populations are currently stable, but U.S. scientists predict that two-thirds of them could be gone by 2050 if predictions about melting sea ice hold true. Polar bears live and hunt on sea ice; when it melts they either drown or are forced onto land, where they are inefficient hunters.

This is the first time global warming has been a factor in arguing for threatened status for any species in the United States and that makes the decision more complex.

Instead of the limited measures required to rescue a species threatened by a drained swamp or denuded forest, polar bears depend on sea ice. That ice is melting at an accelerated rate, at least partly because of human-generated global warming, scientists have reported.

"DO SOMETHING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE"

Hall has previously acknowledged there is no substantial scientific uncertainty, as defined under the Endangered Species Act, about the polar bear case. He said the volume of material from scientists and public hearings caused the delay in making the decision on whether to list the bear as threatened.

Under congressional questioning, Hall noted that 20 percent of polar bear habitat has disappeared since the 1970s and said human-caused global warming must be addressed now.

"We need to do something about climate change, starting yesterday," Hall said. "And it needs to be a serious effort to control greenhouse gases, which is probably the only thing we can control. If the Earth is tilting ... we can't control that but we need to look at things we can control."

The Bush administration is alone among major industrialized countries in rejecting the carbon-curbing Kyoto protocol. Washington also opposes mandatory limits on climate-warming greenhouse emissions.

Luthi, whose agency announced the Chukchi Sea oil lease sale, said there were an estimated 15 billion barrels of oil in the area and that these were needed as world demand for petroleum is rising.

Luthi said the risk to the bears from oil drilling would be negligible and that if the oil sales went through before a decision was reached on the polar bears, there would be "an additional layer of consultation" with conservation officials as oil and gas companies worked in the area.

He acknowledged his agency's environmental impact assessment said there was a 33 to 50 percent chance of a 1,000-barrel spill in this area, but also said no wildlife had been endangered by this kind of exploratory drilling.

Steven Amstrup, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, told the panel that if polar bears came in contact with spilled oil, they would probably die.

"Polar bears do not do well when they get into oil," Amstrup said. "They tend to groom themselves, they ingest the oil and the spills, basically, are most likely fatal."

(Editing by Frances Kerry)

Bush officials say oil drilling will not harm polar bears
Yahoo News 18 Jan 08;

US officials defended plans for oil drilling in the Chukchi Sea off northwestern Alaska, telling lawmakers that it would not harm polar bears, already threatened by global warming.

Randall Luthi, director of the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, which sells oil drilling rights, told Congress Thursday that the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act provides adequate safeguards to polar bears from oil exploration accidents such as oil spills.

In addition, he said, contracts with oil companies include measures to minimize the impact such activities can have on the polar bear population.

"We believe adequate protection exists," he told the House of Representatives special committee on global warming.

The US government estimates crude oil reserves under the Chukchi Sea at 15 billion barrels.

Representative Edward Markey demanded polar bears be declared a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act due to global warming prior to the sale of oil drilling rights in the Chukchi Sea, scheduled for February 6.

If not, "we will be accelerating the day when the polar bear will be extinct," he said.

Markey has proposed legislation that would require the government to make a decision on the polar bear's status before opening its habitat to drilling.

But Dale Hall, the director of US Fish and Wildlife Services, refused to commit to making the decision prior to February 6.

"It's not just making the decision, it's making it clear," he said.

Hall announced January 9 he had postponed a decision on polar bears up to a month more.

Such a decision would be the first time the administration has linked a species' threat of extinction with climate change.

A US government expert on polar bears said that the melting of sea ice due to global warming would cause a two-thirds drop in the world polar bear population by 2050, and named the Chukchi Sea as one of the most threatened polar bear habitats.

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China Drought Underlines Hydropower Reliance Risks

Emma Graham-Harrison, PlanetArk 18 Jan 08;

BEIJING - A major drought has squeezed electricity output at big dams across southwest China, highlighting the risks of Beijing's massive hydropower expansion plans on coal and oil markets in a warmer, drier world.

Ships are stranded, millions are short on drinking water, and power supplies to big consumers in several Chinese provinces have been cut back, industry officials and local media have said.

And while building more dams will help Beijing meet more of its electricity demand using resources within its own borders, it also risks short-term surges in consumption of oil, coal or natural gas to generate emergency power when rivers run low.

The world's number-two energy user already gets 15 percent of its electricity from hydropower and aims to increase capacity by more than half to 190 gigawatts -- over double Britain's entire stock of power plants -- by the end of the decade.

But Australia's similarly ambitious Snowy Hydro power scheme, designed more than half a century ago as a lifeline for the fertile yet dry Murray-Darling river basin, offers a grim warning.

Normally the provider of three quarters of the mainland's renewable energy, it has seen output tumble and drowned towns re-emerge from shrinking reservoirs after years of poor rains.

"The Australian example shows how risky hydropower is, from the point of view of droughts," said CLSA analyst Simon Powell.

"The Snowy system really is not being dispatched at all. And that has caused a tightening of supply on the generation side, resulting in a spiking of wholesale electricity prices."

Other countries like Pakistan and Vietnam that are heavily reliant on hydropower have been forced to step up imports of fuel oil or buy power from neighbours during dry spells, driving up costs for producers and unsettling regional oil markets.


SHORTAGES CREEP BACK

In 2004, China endured its worst power shortages in decades as new plant construction lagged far behind rapid economic growth. Many businesses turned to diesel-fired generators to stave off blackouts, causing oil demand to surge by 15 percent, a key factor behind oil prices' first ascent above US$50 a barrel.

The International Energy Agency estimated that up to 350,000 barrels per day of oil demand, or over a third of total consumption growth that year, went to power generation.

That strain has since eased, as China builds new power stations at a rate unprecedented anywhere in the world; installed capacity has grown by half since the end of 2004.

But in some areas the shortage of local resources -- from coal to water -- is emerging as a new cause of an old problem.

Southwestern Yunnan and Sichuan provinces are both facing electricity shortages because of low water levels in rivers. The strain is so serious in Sichuan that it has affected supplies to major users like metals smelters.

Nearby Guizhou province is also suffering from outages because tight supplies of thermal coal are compounding problems caused by low water levels.

Water levels on the country's longest river, the Yangtze, are the lowest since records began in 1866, state media reported, though reservoirs at its massive Three Gorges project -- the world's biggest hydroelectric plant -- remain healthy.

"This year's dry season came a month earlier than usual and water levels fell sooner than expected," the China Daily quoted an unnamed government official saying on Thursday.

The dry spell is not a one-off. Last year also saw historic droughts in some parts of the country and officials have repeatedly warned that climate change is already affecting China.

"With the impact of global warming, drought and water scarcity are increasingly grave," the State Council, or cabinet, said in a recent directive.

Beijing's fight to curb greenhouse gas emissions includes boosting the role of renewables in powering its economy, which has the added attraction of cutting reliance on oil imports.

"In terms of energy security the government is right to push for hydropower. China also has a lot of water resources that are untapped," said Donovan Huang, research analyst at Nomura.


WORSE TO COME

But the country has naturally low per capita water resources, and China's top water official has warned that the challenge of managing scarce supplies is compounded by climate change.

The frequency of both the droughts and floods that regularly batter China are expected to increase in a warmer world.

And rural demands could compound the impact of short supplies, because China tends to time releases of water to suit the needs of farmers rather than power companies.

For instance, water levels behind major reservoirs nationwide rose 6 percent in early January from 2006, but only because dam operators are stocking up ahead of spring planting season.

Below dams, boat traffic piled up on drought-stricken rivers, and authorities had to release water from behind the Three Gorges Dam to ease cargo ship stranding downstream.

That may have helped power wholesalers in the manufacturing hub of Guangdong, which is looking to the dam for extra supply to help tide over expected summer shortfalls, local media reported.

But if the dam cannot deliver, generators will have to chase tight coal or pricey fuel oil supplies, pushing prices up in a cycle that global warming could make unpleasantly familiar. (Additional reporting by Polly Yam in Hong Kong; Editing by Jonathan Leff and Ramthan Hussain)

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Naples Waste Linked to Death and Disease

Robin Pomeroy and Laura Viggiano, PlanetArk 18 Jan 08;

NAPLES - Piles of trash building up in Naples have filled the air with a putrid stench and spoiled the view for tourists, but the city's waste crisis may also be killing its people.

Standing at the barricades erected by local people to stop the authorities reopening an old landfill in the Pianura neighbourhood, Salvatore Mele, whose son died of cancer, believes the illness was caused by pollution from trash.

"I lost him when he was 21," he said.

Besides fouling the port city's image and adding to risks to the Mediterranean from from sewage and pollution, the waste is in some areas associated with higher death rates and certain types of cancer, studies have shown.

A government-appointed former police chief has been given army backup for a four-month quest to end a crisis which the Italian government declared a 'state of emergency' in 1994, but local people say years of illegal dumping is poisoning them.

"My mum got sick in 2004. We just had time to find what was wrong before she died, 15 days later, of a breast cancer. My father's sister died of the same thing a year later," said Pina Mangiapia, a 38-year-old housewife on the Pianura barricades.

Mangiapia blames the waste dump for three cancer deaths in the family, for the melanoma her husband had removed from his leg, and for her four-year-old son's chronic dermatitis.

Scientists say it can be difficult to assess the extent to which pollution is to blame for illnesses also provoked by genetic, socio-economic and lifestyle factors.

But there is proof that parts of Naples and its hinterland, in the shadow of the volcano Mount Vesuvius, have been steadily contaminated by decades of illegal waste dumping and burning.


TRIANGLE OF DEATH

Medical journal Lancet Oncology in 2004 dubbed part of the Campania region, of which Naples is the capital, "the triangle of death" because the air, soil and water are polluted by high levels of cancer-causing toxins believed to have come from waste.

Research released last year by Italy's National Research Council found that among people living closest to the least-regulated waste-disposal sites -- where trash is dumped in fields or burnt without any controls -- the mortality rate was 12 percent greater than the norm for women and 9 percent greater for men.

Fatal liver cancers were much more common -- up 29 percent for women and 19 percent for men in the most at-risk areas -- and there were huge increases in congenital malformations of the nervous and urinary systems.

While more than half the places studied in the area did not show abnormal health problems, the study implies a significant health risk for those living in the worst areas.

"First we need to make the dumps safe, close them off, properly gather the bio-gas and control the runoff," said Fabrizio Bianchi, who conducted the research. "We have to get out of this crisis."

Naples' failure to deal with its own household waste hit crisis point at the end of December when all refuse collection stopped as waste dumps had reached capacity, leaving people with no choice but to throw it onto the streets.


TOXIC, LUCRATIVE

Political ineptitude, corruption and crime have conspired to stop the creation of a modern, safe disposal system. People despair of their politicians and are suspicious of government schemes -- like a new incinerator -- aimed at ending the crisis.

Like many in and around the 'triangle of death', those in Pianura say their council-run landfill was not properly managed and became a tipping site for hazardous waste.

But an even bigger source of pollution is the Camorra, the Naples mafia which runs a lucrative line in dumping and burning rubbish illegally.

More than domestic trash, the Camorra focuses on disposal of industrial waste which it brings to Campania from Italy's rich north -- one of a string of crimes against the environment earning the mafia an estimated 6 billion euros a year.

"The Camorra continues to control the cycle of industrial waste that comes from the north of Italy," said Michele Buonomo of Legambiente, a campaign group which closely monitors organised crime's assault on the environment.

"That's why practically every night in vast areas of Campania, waste arrives to be burned." (Editing by Sara Ledwith)

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Retailers Go Green to Cut Costs

Nicole Maestri, PlanetArk 18 Jan 08;

NEW YORK - For retailers, going for the green means going for the greenbacks.

That was the point hammered home at the National Retail Federation convention in New York this week.

Many retailers at the conference were touting their environmental efforts, from building stores with recycled materials to installing low-flow water faucets and investing in solar power, as benefits to the bottom line.

Meanwhile, some experts said going green would eventually become the only feasible route as energy costs skyrocket and regulators -- both federal and local -- take a hard look at businesses' environmental efforts.

The green trend began in earnest in 2005, when Wal-Mart Stores Inc, under fire for its labor and health-care practices, latched onto the issue.

The company has since announced far-reaching goals, saying it eventually wants to use only renewable energy, create zero waste and sell products that sustain resources and the environment.

It opened two stores in 2005 to experiment with ways to cut waste, studying everything from recycling french fry oil to testing wind power, in hopes that successful technologies could be incorporated at other stores.

While critics said the moves were designed to improve its image, Wal-Mart, with more than 4,100 US stores, has insisted they will improve operations and cut costs.

"We're going to take waste out, cost out and make our business more efficient," said Leslie Dach, executive vice president of corporate affairs and government relations.

Even little changes can mean big cost savings, Dach said. For instance, an employee suggested the retailer could turn off the lights in its break-room vending machines.

"We discovered that if you took out those light bulbs, we could save US$1 million a year in our electricity bill," Dach said. "No surprise that we went ahead and we did that."


PERVASIVE CULTURE

Suzanne Malec-McKenna, a commissioner with the Chicago Department of the Environment, emphasized at the conference that "green can be green."

Studies have shown consumers prefer shopping in a "vegetated" area, she said, such as in stores that have trees outside.

"If you're attempting to add green to your business on the outside," she said, " ... you're going to drive more business to you."

For environmental efforts to succeed, retailers said, they must have measurable goals, show returns and be incorporated into all aspects of the business.

Dach said Wal-Mart had made sure "every buyer, everyone in finance, everyone in operations understands that making sustainable choices is part of their overall job descriptions."

Because of that, he said: "In good times and bad, when budgets are good or budgets are cut, sustainability still remains a very important part of our business."

Even a retailer like REI, whose business revolves around selling outdoor gear and clothing, found it hard to swallow the notion that being green could save money, said Kevin Hagen, the company's head of corporate social responsibility.

But REI discovered that by building stores with skylights that bring in natural light, it saved not only on energy but also on staffing costs because employees quit less frequently. Hagen also said those stores generated more sales than the rest of the chain.

Still, not all retailers are on board.

"None of my companies have talked about it (or) seem to care," said JP Morgan analyst Brian Tunick, who covers specialty clothing retailers like American Eagle Outfitters Inc and Aeropostale Inc.

However, Brenda Mathison, Best Buy Co Inc's director of environmental affairs, said some investors were eager to back companies that take the environment into account.

To cut its emissions, Best Buy is adding solar power to its stores, Mathison said. It is also recycling packaging and looking to build electronics that consume less energy.

Chicago official Malec-McKenna said that as technologies improve to help retailers build eco-friendly stores and products, "it's going to be economically inefficient not to be green."

Stacy Janiak, vice chairman in Deloitte's US retail practice, said big retailers were taking the lead to try to institute changes on their own terms, before the government comes up with its own solution.

"If you're not ahead of it," she said, "it will be mandated." (Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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France gets tough on maritime polluters

Today Online 18 Jan 08;

PARIS — A court has convicted the French oil giant Total SA of maritime pollution for hauling fuel in a dubious and rusty tanker which split in two in a 1999 storm, causing France's worst oil spill. The ruling on Wednesday marked the first time a French court awarded damages for harm to the ecology.

The court ordered Total and three other defendants to pay 192 million euros ($404 million) in compensation to 101 civil parties, mainly associations involved in the clean-up or ecology groups.

Far less punishing for Total than the damages was the 375,000-euro fine accompanying the guilty verdict for maritime pollution — the maximum fine for that offence. The court faulted the company for "carelessness" in leasing the 23-year-old Maltese-registered vessel which had had eight names and numerous owners.

Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said the verdict "marks a very important step" by recognising "the notion of an ecological harm resulting from an attack on the environment".

The court also convicted Italian company Registro Italiano Navale, or Rina, which had inspected the vessel, as well as the ship's Italian owner, Giuseppe Savarese, and Antonio Pollara, head of Italian company Panship, which was operating the vessel.

The verdict was less harsh than it might have been. Total was acquitted of complicity in endangering people in the spill that soiled some 400km of Atlantic coastal beaches in the region known as Brittany. Total suggested it was studying whether to appeal the case. It has 10 days to do so. — AP

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