FREE visit to Raffles Lighthouse: March and April 2019
Celebrating Singapore Shores!
EIA discussed in Parliament – what it means for Love MacRitchie
Love MacRitchie
NSS Kids’-ESN Fun with Birds & Butterflies
Fun with Nature
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Best of our wild blogs: 9 Mar 19
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Parliament: Action plan to give youth more say in shaping Singapore's future
Tiffany Fumiko Tay Straits Times 8 Mar 19;
SINGAPORE - More power to shape the future of the country will be placed in the hands of Singapore's youth, under a new initiative that will allow them to highlight issues they care about and propose solutions.
A panel will be formed to help articulate a youth vision for the Republic in 2025 and create an action plan to achieve it, Senior Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth Sim Ann said in Parliament on Friday (March 8). The ministry defines youth as those between the ages of 15 and 35.
Appointed youth leaders from various sectors and organisations will engage their peers in developing the SG Youth Action Plan, Ms Sim said during the debate on her ministry's budget. The plan will identify priority areas, which may range from jobs and employment to mental health, she added.
Opportunities will also be created for young people to provide policy recommendations and create partnership projects with government and other stakeholders. The panel will be formed by the middle of this year and jointly led by Ms Sim and a youth leader, who has yet to be named.
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Malaysia: 35 treated for methane poisoning after illegal waste dumping in Johor's Pasir Gudang
Channel NewsAsia 7 Mar 19;
JOHOR BAHRU: Thirty-five people, mostly students, have been hospitalised after breathing in methane from chemical waste that had been illegally dumped into a river in Pasir Gudang.
Those who fell ill were students and canteen workers from two schools, which were ordered shut on Thursday (Mar 7) while investigations take place.
"Twenty-one people are warded at the Sultan Ismail Hospital here including three in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), five are being treated at the emergency unit of the hospital while the rest were given outpatient treatment and allowed to go home," said Johor Health, Environment and Agriculture Committee chairman Sahruddin Jamal.
"All of them, aged from seven to 40 years, are reported to be stable."
Dr Sahruddin had said earlier on Thursday that eight people were in critical condition. A student had fainted and five more started vomiting after breathing in methane on Thursday morning.
A tanker lorry is believed to have dumped chemical waste into the Kim Kim River in Johor on Wednesday morning.
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Body of warm water in Indian Ocean heading to Malaysia
The Star 7 Mar 19;
PETALING JAYA: A conservation group monitoring coral in Malaysian waters has warned of a body of warm water forming in the Indian Ocean which can lead to coral bleaching.
Reef Check Malaysia general manager Julian Hyde said a review of information from the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showed that the body of warm water was slowly moving eastwards towards Malaysia.
“We haven’t had reports of bleaching yet. It’s a little early.
“For bleaching to start, there needs to be several consecutive weeks of warm water, which requires an even more extended stretch of hot weather. So far, nothing yet,” he said in a statement yesterday.
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Malaysia: Counter measures to take effect if dry weather persists
intan amalina mohd ali The Star 8 Mar 19;
GEORGE TOWN: Dry weather control measures will be initiated if the hot weather persists over the next two months, said Penang Water Supply Corporation Sdn Bhd (PBAPP) chief executive officer Datuk Jaseni Maidinsa.
He said the measures include initiating an emergency drawdown of raw water from the Mengkuang Dam, requesting Kedah to release more water into Sungai Muda and appealing for cloud seeding from the federal government as well as seeking a delay in the padi planting season so that more raw water can be used for water supply purposes.
“Among the actions taken to ensure no water rationing are the daily monitoring on Penang dams, Sungai Muda and the Kedah dams that release water into Sungai Muda, minimising raw water drawdowns from the Ayer Itam Dam and pumping water from other sources to meet water demand in the Ayer Itam and Paya Terubong areas,” he said.
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Best of our wild blogs: 8 Mar 19
10 Mar: Registration opens for Sisters Islands Intertidal walks in Apr 2019
Celebrating Singapore Shores!
30 Mar (Sat): R.U.M. mangrove cleanup
Restore Ubin Mangroves Initiative
19 Apr (Fri): Kayaking Sungei Simpang
Celebrating Singapore Shores!
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Masterplan to push Singapore towards zero-waste future
KENNETH CHENG Today Online 7 Mar 19;
SINGAPORE — From 2024, large hotels and malls will have to separate their food waste from all other trash so that it can be specially treated and converted to other uses, such as animal feed or compost for landscaping.
This will be one of the key measures rolled out as part of Singapore’s Zero-Waste Masterplan, which will be launched in the second half of this year, Senior Minister of State (Environment and Water Resources) Amy Khor said in Parliament on Thursday (March 7).
The masterplan will set out steps that Singapore must take to minimise its food, packaging and electrical and electronic waste.
It has set a goal of raising the overall recycling rate here to 70 per cent and the domestic recycling rate to 30 per cent by 2030.
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NEWSand: Government studying how to turn incineration ash into construction material
Aqil Haziq Mahmud Channel NewsAsia 7 Mar 19;
SINGAPORE: The Government is studying how it can turn incineration ash into construction material, Environment and Water Resources Minister Masagos Zulkifli said in his Committee of Supply speech in Parliament on Thursday (Mar 7).
"Today, we already have NEWater," he said. "We are working on creating NEWSand. We are studying how we can turn incineration ash into construction material, instead of landfilling it."
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Parliament: Big push to grow Singapore's food and water resources to ensure survival in the face of climate change
Chang Ai-Lien Straits Times 7 Mar 19;
SINGAPORE - With global warming heralding new threats, resource scarcity will be the new normal.
So the Government is throwing its weight behind efforts to protect and provide for the country's survival - in the areas of water, making the most of waste, food and climate change research - Environment and Water Resources Minister Masagos Zulkifli said on Thursday (March 7).
"Climate change is bringing new and wicked problems," he said in Parliament.
"It is no coincidence that we are building more desalination and Newater plants - we need to produce water almost at will, regardless of whether the rains come."
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Indonesia: Ministry focuses on preventive measures against forest fires
Antara 7 Mar 19;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Environmental Affairs and Forestry Ministry`s Forest and Land Fire Control Brigade, Manggala Agni, and stakeholders joining a forest fire task force, is currently focusing on preventive measures against the occurrence of forest fires in Riau Province.
After extinguishing wildfires in the province, the ministry and the task force are now focused on preventive efforts, Raffles B. Panjaitan, the ministry`s Director of Forest and Land Fire Control (PKHL), said in a statement, on Wednesday.
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Indonesia: Thousands surrounded by floods across Java
Arya Dipa and Ganug Nugroho Adi The Jakarta Post 7 Mar 19;
More than 22,000 families in 10 districts of Bandung, West Java, have been affected by water from the Citarum River that flooded the area on Thursday, killing one.
The Bandung Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD Bandung) said rain that had started on Wednesday afternoon had caused floods of almost 3 meters in some areas. Baleendah district was the worst hit, with more than 5,000 families affected. The other districts that were also severely paralyzed by the floods are Dayeuhkolot and Bojongsoang. All three districts are located alongside the Citarum River.
The head of the BPBD Bandung’s emergency and logistics division, Sudrajat, said only 226 people from Baleendah had decided to abandon their homes, while most had opted to endure the high water. In Dayeuhkolot, 138 were rescued, including children, pregnant women and the elderly.
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Parliament: Decisions to clear land and forest cover not taken lightly, says Desmond Lee
Cheryl Teh Straits Times 6 Mar 19;
SINGAPORE - Nature is an important buffer against climate change, and in order to safeguard Singapore's climate resilience, decisions to clear land and forest cover are not taken lightly, Second Minister for National Development Desmond Lee told Parliament on Wednesday (March 6).
Additionally, because of its small size, Singapore must continue to be judicious with land use to meet its needs as a city and country, said Mr Lee, who is also Minister for Social and Family Development.
"Our small size means that our land and resources are finite, and the tensions and trade-offs for us when it comes to land use are magnified many times compared to larger countries," he said during the debate on the Ministry of National Development's (MND's) budget.
"Any decision to clear land and forest cover is not taken lightly," Mr Lee said. "It is a decision we make after very careful deliberation and inter-agency discussion, taking into account Singaporeans' needs and the trade-offs involved."
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