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.

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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.

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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.

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