Amresh Gunasingham Straits Times 10 Nov 10;
THE recent haze may still be fresh on people's minds, but Singaporeans have mostly enjoyed clean air over the last 40 years, Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim said yesterday.
This, despite challenges posed by the need to rapidly industrialise the city-state, which in the years after independence, lacked proper homes and blue-chip industries needed to sustain a young country.
In the last four decades, the Pollutant Standard Index (PSI) - used here to measure air quality - has been in the 'good' range on nine out of 10 days, said the minister, who opened the Better Air Quality 2010 Conference at Suntec Convention Centre.
On most of the other days, the index crept into the 'moderate' range, while only on three occasions in the last 10 years did it hit the 'unhealthy' range.
This happened in 1997, 2006 and last month, when severe haze blanketed the island, caused by smoke blown this way from neighbouring Indonesia. A PSI reading of over 100 is considered unhealthy.
He said: 'From the planning stage, such as locating pollutive industries away from residential areas, down to mandating and enforcing strict emission standards, we have been careful...to strike a fine balance between supporting economic development and ensuring a high quality of life.'
Although last year's Copenhagen climate change conference failed to bring a binding agreement to cut greenhouse gases, and the one in Cancun, Mexico, next month is not expected to reach that goal either, Singapore has released a blueprint which spells out key targets to maintain the environment over the next 20 years.
Among them, the government wants to cut the amount of particulate matter known as PM 2.5, which are dust-like particles smaller than a raindrop, found in the air here over the next 10 years.
Dr Yaacob yesterday called on various stakeholders, from governments, non-governmental organisations, educational institutions to the media, as well as the public, to play their part so that cities can grow in a more sustainable way.
