Climate catastrophe getting closer, warn scientists

Marlowe Hood Yahoo News 18 Jun 09;

PARIS (AFP) – The world faces a growing risk of "abrupt and irreversible climatic shifts" as fallout from global warming hits faster than expected, according to research by international scientists released Thursday.

Global surface and ocean temperatures, sea levels, extreme climate events, and the retreat of Arctic sea ice have all significantly picked up more pace than experts predicted only a couple of years ago, they said.

The stark warning comes less than six months before an international conference aiming to seal a treaty to save the planet from the worst ravages of global warming.

A 36-page document summarized more than 1,400 studies presented at a climate conference in March in Copenhagen, where a United Nations meeting will be held in December to hammer out a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto expires in 2012.

The report said greenhouse gas emissions and other climate indicators are at or near the upper boundaries forecast by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose 2007 report has been the scientific benchmark for the troubled UN talks.

There is also new evidence that the planet itself has begun to contribute to global warming through fall out from human activity.

Huge stores of gases such as methane -- an even more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide -- trapped for millennia in the Arctic permafrost may be starting to leak into the atmosphere, speeding up the warming process.

The natural capacity of the oceans and forests to absorb CO2 created by the burning of fossil fuels has also been compromised, research has shown.

The new report, written and reviewed by many of the scientists who compiled the IPCC document, calls on policy makers to take urgent steps to keep average global temperatures from increasing more than two degrees Centigrade (3.6 degree Fahrenheit), compared to pre-industrial levels.

"Rapid, sustained, and effective mitigation ... is required to avoid 'dangerous climate change' regardless of how it is defined," it said.

"Temperature rises above 2 C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with, and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond."

The IPCC has said that achieving this goal would require industrialised nations to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 25-40 percent compared to 1990 levels.

The new report suggested that deep and early emissions cuts -- one of the most contentious issues on the table in the UN talks -- are essential.

"Weaker targets for 2020 increase the risk of serious impacts, including the crossing of tipping points" beyond which natural forces begin to push up temperatures even faster.

Many scientists agree that if those boundaries are crossed, it would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to reverse the process.

The new synthesis does not carry the same weight as the IPCC report, which is based on an even wider range of studies and -- most importantly -- is a consensus document, which means even conservative scientific viewpoints are taken into account.

But the IPCC data is at least four or five years old, and a welter of new research suggests the global warming impacts could be even worse, and will arrive sooner rather than later.

Climate modelers at MIT, for example, recently calculated that unless huge efforts are made to slash carbon pollution, Earth's surface temperatures will jump 5.2 C (9.4 F) by 2100, more than twice as high as their own predictions in 2003.

The Copenhagen report will be presented to Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen on Thursday during a European Union summit in Brussels.

Rasmussen, who will host the UN conference in December, has called on scientists to provide "concrete advice" to policy makers.

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Rising sea levels put one in six homes in England at risk of flooding

Valerie Elliott, Times Online 19 Jun 09;

One in six homes in England is at risk of flooding and some £20 billion is needed by 2035 for defences to protect properties from rising sea levels and extreme rainfall, the Environment Agency warns today.

Spending on flood defences must rise from £570 million a year to £1 billion a year — and that will protect only 490,000 homes that are at the highest risk of flooding.

The threat to entire communities is particularly alarming as vital installations for electricity, water and gas are at significant risk of flooding, which could switch off taps and leave thousands of homes and buildings without light or heating, the agency warns.

Thousands of schools, nurseries, hospitals and GP surgeries are also at very high risk of being swamped by floods — but rescue operations could be thwarted because of the high number of emergency services such as police, fire and ambulance that are also at risk from flooding.

Some 2,500km (1,550 miles) of railway, 4,000km of roads and scores of premises earmarked for use as flood evacuation centres are also threatened as are hundreds of seaside camping and caravan parks and prisons.

Ministers have already made clear that the taxpayer cannot foot the bill to protect every property from flooding. The area around Boston in Lincolnshire, identified as the highest flood risk in England, has 23,700 properties under threat and extra council tax levies are likely to be necessary.

In areas with a small number of dwellings requiring defences costing £50,000 to £100,000, homeowners may have to pay for it themselves.

In a swath of southern England, which has 111,356 properties at risk — including houses, offices, factories, warehouses, farms and other commercial premises — some hamlets and neighbourhoods may be expected to raise their own funds for flood defences. The suggestion that “beneficiaries should pay” in certain settlements was accepted by the Government last year. Developers building new homes and towns are already being made to address issues of flood risk as a requirement of planning permission.

The Environment Agency believes that householders should be given incentives to floodproof their homes in return for cheaper premiums for insurance cover. It is also urging local authorities to offer council tenants the chance to pay for flood insurance cover for their belongings as part of their rent.

Conservation work that is funded by lottery money could be extended to help save special heritage sites, beauty spots and important wildlife and scientific sites from flooding.

The flood threat to homes and business is enormous — with a total of 5.4 million at risk of flooding, of which 2.4 million are threatened by rivers and sea and a further 2.8 million from surface water from overflowing drains. Almost half a million are rated as being at the highest risk but without extra cash on flood defences an extra 350,000 properties, including 280,000 homes, will be in that category within 25 years.

Some £150 million a year is also needed to improve drainage systems and remove the threat from surface water that devastated so many places in the freak summer flooding two years ago, which claimed 13 lives and flooded 55,000 homes, in the South West, the Midlands and Yorkshire.

Without the extra investment the cost of flood damage to properties is also estimated to rise from £2.5 billion a year to £4 billion by 2035.

Nick Starling, director of general insurance at the Association of British Insurers, said insurance companies were willing to play their part to help households. “It is vital that Government now sets out a long term strategy for dealing with this increasing risk,” he said.

Flood protection 'needs doubling'
Richard Black, BBC News 19 Jun 09;

One in six homes in England is at risk of flooding, says the Environment Agency, and climate change will raise that number without better protection.

The agency calculates that funding for projects that protect communities from flooding from rivers and the sea needs to double to £1bn annually by 2035.

Without that, it says, economic damage worth £4bn per year could be the norm.

The agency's report uses data from the government's projections of UK climate impacts, published on Thursday.

"The latest UK climate change data shows that the risk of flooding and coastal erosion will continue to increase in future due to rising sea levels and more frequent and heavy storms," said agency chairman Chris Smith.

"There are important decisions for us all to take about how to manage these risks to protect people, communities, businesses and the economy in future."

Major costs

The climate impact projections - UKCP09 - concluded that every part of the UK was likely to receive more rainfall in winters - by 2080, as much as 20% more in some regions.

This means, the Environment Agency says, that rivers may carry 20% more water at some periods of the year than at present.

The agency is also concerned that rising sea levels may overwhelm sea defences in some regions unless they are strengthened.

Vital infrastructure is also increasingly at risk, it says, with about one-sixth of the country's electricity infrastructure situated in flood plains.

The agency revealed the top 10 local authority areas in England with the most properties at risk.

Top of the list came Boston, in Lincolnshire, with 23,700. Second was North Somerset with 20,415 and third was East Lindsey, also in Lincolnshire, with 14,949.

A year ago, the Pitt Review of flood preparedness concluded that major improvements were needed at local and national level.

Sir Michael Pitt said it was "absolutely not acceptable" that residents were forced out of their homes for more than a year by flood damage.

But he did not name the cost of improved flood protection - a gap that the Environment Agency has now filled.

It suggests that some schemes could be funded locally without input from central government.

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Here is the weather for 2080: floods, droughts and heatwaves

The UK government today issued the most detailed assessment yet of how global warming will unfold across the nation
David Adam, guardian.co.uk 18 Jun 09;

And now for the weather. The 2020s are looking warm and dry, with occasional heavy winter showers. The 2050s should be sunny and warm, with scattered deaths due to heatwaves across London and the south-east. And looking ahead to the 2080s, temperatures could reach 41C, so be sure to pack the suncream for your picnic. And watch out for those great white sharks!

Scientists today issued the most detailed assessment yet of how global warming will unfold across Britain. In a range of possible scenarios published by the government, the experts painted a picture of a very different UK, with soaring summertime temperatures and dwindling rainfall.

Announcing the results, Hilary Benn, environment secretary, said global warming will affect "every aspect of our daily lives". The scientists say summer rainfall in south-east England could decrease by a fifth by the 2050s. Average mean temperatures are likely to rise by more than 2C across the UK by 2040s. If carbon emissions continue to rise, there is a 10% chance that temperatures in the southeast could rise by 8C or more by the 2080s.

The results are aimed at industries and organisations that need to make long-term investment decisions that could be influenced by a changing climate. They come as scientists urge politicians to focus on adapting to inevitable climate change as well as on efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Benn said: "There is no doubt about it, climate change is the biggest challenge facing the world today. It is already happening, the hottest ten years on record globally have all been since 1990. This landmark scientific evidence shows not only that we need to tackle the causes of climate change, but also that we must deal with the consequences."

The new predictions follow a similar exercise in 2002, that produced maps of likely changes across Britain for the 2020s, 2050s and 2080s. They showed the UK faced drier, warmer summers and wetter, milder winters. Experts say the new results are more powerful, because they present the relative probabilities of a range of possible outcomes. They also cover three different possible futures, in which carbon emissions are low, medium or high. Benn said the world was currently heading along the medium scenario, but that there was a risk that emissions could increase towards the high pathway.

Under the high emissions scenario, the results suggest the hottest summer days could be 12C warmer than today, with peak summer temperatures in London regularly topping 40C.

To produce the new predictions, the scientists at the Met Office Hadley Centre ran 300 versions of their sophisticated climate computer model, and pooled the results to see which outcomes were most likely. The results cannot be used to predict specific weather on future dates, but they indicate broad trends.

Andy Brown, climate change and environmental performance manager with Anglian Water, said the results would help the company plan key infrastructure such as reservoirs. "The increased resolution and probabilities will help to give us more focus." The breakdown into small regions, just 25km across, will help too. "Rainfall can be very localised so it will help us make plans to deal with events."

Paul Bettison, chair of the environment board at the Local Government Association: "We need to start encouraging people to plan for the future. Schools in other countries more used to blistering hot summers are built with large amounts of shade. Our teachers chase people out of shady classrooms to enjoy the sunshine."

Better projections of climate in the 2050s and even the 2080s can help local authorities to force developers to adapt their designs, he says. And existing regulations only insist on a minimum temperature inside buildings such as schools, that is likely to change to include maximum temperature too. "When the original act was written in the 1960s nobody had heard of climate change," he said. "Simply building in dirty great air conditioning units is not the answer."

Paul Williams, a climate scientist at the University of Reading, said: "Sceptics will no doubt question how scientists can confidently predict the climate of 2080, when we cannot even forecast next week's weather with any skill. But climate prediction and weather forecasting are completely different problems. We can say with confidence that July is always warmer than January, because more sunlight is received. Similarly, we can say with confidence that the 2080s will be warmer than the 2000s, because of the extra heat trapped by greenhouse gases."

The Department of Energy and Climate Change said the publication of the new climate predictions marked the first step towards a "five point plan" to tackle climate change. Later this month, Ed Miliband, energy and climate secretary, will publish the government's blueprint for a new global climate deal, which it hopes will be agreed at key UN talks in Copenhagen in December. Next month, ministers will publish a new national strategy for climate and energy, to set out policies to meet the government's domestic carbon reduction targets.

The climate predictions were welcomed by the University of Oxford's Sir David King, the former chief scientific advisor. "Now the question is whether or not the British public and their councillors, planners, civil servants and politicians have the appetite to provide sufficient funding to implement long-range schemes of adaptation across the regions covered by the report."

Green campaigners called for stronger action on emissions to avoid the damaging impacts the UK will face .

Andy Atkins, Friends of the Earth executive director, said: "This valuable new research highlights the damaging impact that climate change will have around the UK . The UK government must show real leadership by example ahead of crucial climate negotiations in Copenhagen."

Chris Smith, chairman of the Environment Agency said: "These new projections remind us starkly of the choices we face in ensuring a sustainable future for our fragile planet. A failure to cut greenhouse gas emissions will lead to a battle for survival for mankind and many other species across the globe by the end of this century."

Britain faces severe warming by 2080s: study
Peter Griffiths, Reuters 18 Jun 09;

LONDON (Reuters) - Climate change could lead to a rise in average summer temperatures in parts of Britain that is nearly double the level which the European Union and others say is dangerous, a study said on Thursday.

The government-backed report warned that southeast England could see a 3.9 Celsius (7 Fahrenheit) rise in average summer temperatures by the 2080s unless global action was taken to curb planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

That would lead to heatwaves, droughts, lower crop yields and more pests and disease, the long-awaited report by Britain's leading climate change scientists said.

The European Union wants global average temperatures not to exceed 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, although many see that target as being increasingly hard to meet.

Britain's Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said it was too late to reverse the damage likely to be caused over the next 20 to 30 years by emissions already released into the atmosphere.

However, he said countries could still influence what happens in the 2080s and beyond if they agreed to cut emissions at international climate change talks in Copenhagen in December.

"These results are sobering and we know that these changes will affect every aspect of our daily lives," Benn told parliament. "Only by cutting emissions through a global deal in Copenhagen can we avoid some of these extreme changes."

The report was released two days after U.S. President Barack Obama's government warned that climate change had already caused "visible impacts" in the United States, especially for farmers and the energy industry.

SWELTERING LONDON

The UK study forecast a 2-6C (3.6-10.8F) rise in temperatures across the southeast by the 2080s, with a most likely figure of 3.9C. London temperatures could reach 40C.

If emissions were allowed to rise significantly, the report's authors said average temperatures could get even higher.

Some parts of England may see a 22 percent cut in average summer rainfall, while the northwest could have 16 percent less rain during winter. The sea level in the southeast is projected to rise by 18 cm (7.1 inches) by 2040 and 36 cm by 2080.

The changing weather could lead to more flooding, storm surges at ports in eastern England and a greater risk to farmers from drought, crop diseases and heat stress among livestock.

However, the study said businesses might benefit from more demand for products to help cope with the changing environment, the ability to grow different crops and an increase in tourism.

The UK Climate Impacts Programme used computers owned by Britain's Met Office, the government weather center, to estimate how the climate will change due to global warming if action is not taken to cut emissions. Its last report was in 2002.

Scientists cautioned that their study was "not a long-range weather forecast," rather a set of possible scenarios based on the best available science. It can be found at ukcp09.defra.gov.uk

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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Slim, Tata, others advise U.N.'s Ban on climate

Reuters 17 Jun 09;

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has formed an advisory group on climate change that includes Mexico's Carlos Slim, India's Ratan Tata, other business tycoons and executives from nongovernmental organizations, one member of the group said.

"It's goal is to be supportive for the secretary-general in his work to increase the likelihood of a deal in Copenhagen and also then afterwards the execution of the deal," Lars Josefsson, the chief executive of Swedish power utility Vattenfall, told Reuters after the inaugural meeting of the group in New York on Wednesday.

Rich and poor nations remain in a deadlock on how to cut emissions. Nearly 200 nations will try to hammer out a successor pact to the U.N. Kyoto Protocol on global warming at a meeting at the end of the year in Denmark.

Poor countries want the rich to commit to deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions because they have historically emitted most of the planet-warming gases. China and many other developing countries want the rich to cut by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Offers made by rich countries so far work out to cuts of between 8 and 14 percent below 1990.

Josefsson said Ban's group aims to meet every two months and to continue coming together after Copenhagen.

The group also includes Zhenrong Shi, chief executive of Chinese solar panel maker Suntech Holdings Co Ltd and Leena Srivastava, the executive director of The Energy and Resources Institute, an Indian nonprofit. Tata is the chairman of Tata Motors. Billionaire Slim controls Telemex.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner, editing by Jackie Frank)

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EU leaders postpone decision on climate change aid

Yahoo News 19 Jun 09;

BRUSSELS (AFP) – EU leaders on Thursday postponed a decision on climate change aid for the poorest nations, a move slammed by environmentalists.

"The main principles of contribution should be the ability to pay and the responsibility for emissions," the European leaders said in a statement issued during a summit in Brussels

"All countries, except the least developed, should contribute to the financing of the fight against climate change in developing countries," the text added.

But there were no concrete commitment or firm figures.

The EU "recognises the scale of the effort required" and would therefore contribute "a fair share of international public support for action for mitigation and adaptation, in particular for the least developed coutries," the 27 heads of state and government said in their statement.

They invited the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, to put forward proposals, including on financing "as soon as possible" so that decisions can be taken at the next EU summit in October.

In its own backyard, EU nations have committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, and to increase the cuts to 30 percent if other developed countries follow suit.

Environmental group Greenpeace slammed the EU's failure to put cash on the table to help developing countries to introduce green technologies and energy efficiencies.

"Money is the make or break issue in the ongoing global climate negotiations. Waiting until October means another three months of deadlock in international negotiations," said Greenpeace's EU climate and energy policy director Joris den Blanken.

"Today has shown us that European leaders are still not up to the challenge. We need European leadership to push for a strong climate deal by the end of this year," he added, referring to global climate change talks in Copenhagen in December.

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Best of our wild blogs: 18 Jun 09

Where does our sewage go?
from wild shores of singapore

Flowerpecker’s nest
from Bird Ecology Study Group

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Singapore's total population grew to 4.84m in 2008, up 5.5% over previous year

Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia 17 Jun 09;

SINGAPORE : Singapore continues to face the long-term challenge of low fertility and an ageing population, according to its latest population report.

But the record number of foreign residents in the country has helped grow the total population to 4.84 million in 2008 - an increase of 5.5 per cent over the previous year.

Foreigners now make up about 25 per cent of the total population.

The National Population Secretariat, which released the figures on Wednesday, said the country needs to press on with efforts to build a sustainable population, even as the economic downturn drags on.

Accountant Madam Elham Hassan Mahmoud Birkia came to Singapore from Sudan in 1990. Little did she expect to stay on in this country for 19 years and even call it home.

Madam Elham and her family members have been Singapore citizens for some three years now. And she said her two daughters, aged 13 and 12, born in Singapore and studying in neighbourhood schools are as Singaporean as you can get.

"They take Singapore as their home. Before, they are Sudanese, but when people ask them, they say I am from Singapore not from Sudan," said Madam Elham.

Madam Elham and her family make up the nearly 100,000 new PRs and citizens last year. The number is up about 20% compared to 2007.

As Singapore becomes home to more foreigners, efforts are underway to better help them integrate into society.

For example, the newly-established National Integration Council will drive efforts on social integration across the private, people and public sectors. It will also encourage more ground-up initiatives to integrate Singaporeans, both existing and new.

And Madam Elham is an example of how community outreach has helped her adapt to multi-racial Singapore.

She has been volunteering with the Tampines North Zone 4 Residents' Committee since 2005 and was appointed as the RC Treasurer in 2007. She has also been involved in activities such as organising block parties and helping other new citizens by conducting home visits and counselling them when needed.

Addressing concerns from some Singaporeans that foreigners may take away precious jobs from locals during this time of economic downturn, the National Population Secretariat reiterated the need for foreign talents to supplement the Singapore workforce.

The Manpower Ministry's Divisional Director for Manpower Planning and Policy, Jeffrey Wong said the government is monitoring its foreign manpower policies closely and will make adjustments when needed.

For example, it took steps to adjust the criteria for foreign worker S-Passes this month. This is to ensure Singapore brings in more higher quality foreign workers.

Currently, more than 6 in 10 new citizens and nearly 8 in 10 PRs have post-secondary education.

On the marriage and parenthood front, the numbers show slightly more couples tying the knot last year - up 2.6 per cent to 24,596.

But the number of singles continues to grow and couples are marrying later.

Over the past decade, the median age for first marriages went up from 28 to 29 years for men and 25 to 27 years for women.

The proportion of singles among the 30 to 34 age group surged by some 7 percentage points for both men and women.

Singaporeans are still not having enough babies, and the country's low fertility rate remains a problem.

The total fertility rate is 1.28, which is way below the replacement level of 2.1 for over 30 years now.

And given the country's aging population, experts said Singapore needs to press on with efforts to grow its population.

The National Population Secretariat noted these challenges faced during an economic crisis - families deferring their decision to have kids, lesser inflow of immigrants and Singaporeans abroad choosing to come home or leave to find greener pastures.

It is important, even in times of economic downturn, to continue to encourage marriage and parenthood, encourage naturalisation and integration of new immigrants into the country as well as continue to engage our larger Singaporean families out there who are overseas Singaporeans," said Quah Ley Hoon, director of the National Population Secretariat.

As of June last year, there are more than 180,000 Singaporeans living abroad. - CNA /ls

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A pale shade of green

Wong Fook Seng, Patrick, Today Online 18 Jun 09;

I APPLAUD any efforts by local companies to go green; however, one wonders about the motivation behind such efforts. Are these attempts really meant to help save the Earth or is it all about cutting costs and good PR?

Do banks switch to e-statements just to save on printing and postage costs? Do firms switch to energy-saving bulbs just to save on electricity bills? Do malls switch to water-saving flushing systems to save on water bills?

Yes, such efforts go some way to prevent more harm being done to our environment, but is so much attention being given to them that the basics of recycling and reducing waste are being ignored?

Let’s take the malls as an example. The water bills may be down, but what about the airconditioning blasting away all day?

In hotels, every effort is made to remind guests not to waste water by avoiding changing towels every day - but are the hotels recycling the thousands of plastic bottles of water given out freely each day? They distribute bottled water at conferences - are these recycled?

In kopitiams across Singapore, people go through thousands of cups each day - are these recycled? No. Cans are recycled because doing so brings in some cash. Recycling plastic does not bring in any cash, so the cups go into the trash.

At the airport, no open bottles of water are allowed beyond the Customs security checkpoint. But do you see any plastic recycling bins there?

What about supermarkets’ “bring your own bag” day? I have asked cashiers and they tell me that only a small fraction of customers - maybe one in 40 - bring their own bags. It’s not working.

Also, the staff don’t think green. Do I need to bag a 12-pack of cola that comes in packaging with a handle? Is there a need to bag canned drink when I intend to drink it on the spot?

All these supposed “go green” efforts go to waste because the root of the problem is poor staff and shopper education - all parties need to be taught why and how to go green.

To really help drive home the idea of reducing waste, look at how Ikea customers are “trained” not to ask for plastic bags - because they have to pay for them. They either bring their own bags or find very innovative ways to carry the items home. It’s a laudable formula.

So, companies, instead of paying lip service to green efforts for the sake of PR, why not do something that will make a real difference?

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Malaria: Why is action so slow in coming?

Delay in notifying the mosquito-busters can result in more cases
Salma Khalik, Straits Times 18 Jun 09;

DOCTORS are required by law, on pain of a fine and/or a jail term, to alert the Ministry of Health (MOH) within 24 hours of diagnosing a patient with certain infectious diseases.

This is so that the authorities can swoop in and nip the spread of these diseases - such as mosquito-borne ones like dengue, malaria and chikungunya - in the bud.

To be effective, notification must be prompt and follow-up action immediate.

The current outbreak of malaria has raised questions as to whether the notification system is imbued with enough sense of urgency.

By the time the National Environment Agency (NEA) activated its mosquito-busters, at least 17 more people had become infected.

Why did it take two to three weeks after Patient Zero surfaced for the NEA to swing into action?

An NEA spokesman said the agency was told of the Jurong cluster on May 25 - 22 days after the first patient there showed symptoms of malaria. It moved in with its search-and-destroy team the next day.

As for the Mandai cluster, it got the news on May 29, 13 days after the first patient there became ill. Fogging began the next day.

This is not the first time that a time lag between symptoms appearing in the first patient and NEA being told has resulted in more infections.

Singapore's fight against chikungunya last year was also bugged by similar delays.

It is difficult to ascertain how many of the more than 100 locally-transmitted chikungunya cases last year, and the 250 so far this year, can be traced to the slow eradication of Aedes mosquitoes in the affected areas. But the existence of clusters of cases suggests that delay played a role in the spread of the disease.

The fact that a doctor's failure to inform MOH of a notifiable disease like malaria within 24 hours could land him in jail for up to six months and/or a fine of up to $10,000 is indication enough that the law views the spread of such diseases seriously. Why then the delay?

The question has been posed to MOH several times, but no answer has been forthcoming.

The lapses appear to be in the reporting system. Either doctors are not reporting cases early enough, laboratories are taking too long to revert with test results, or ministry officials are not following up on tip-offs as quickly as they should.

Malaria is transmitted from patient to patient via mosquito bites. When someone is infected and symptoms appear, it means that the person has the malaria-bearing parasite in his blood.

The biting is done by the female Anopheles mosquito, which requires blood meals to go into breeding mode. A mosquito which picks up the parasites from the blood of an infected person passes them on to the next person it bites.

The only way to break the chain of transmission is to ensure that the patient is not bitten while still infectious. This means the patient either has to be kept in air-conditioned isolation and away from all insects, or all Anopheles mosquitoes in the vicinity have to be killed, and their breeding places destroyed.

In the recent outbreaks, people were getting infected and falling ill over a period of almost a month. This means several patients - and mosquitoes - were involved in spreading the disease.

The NEA is confident that it has wiped out the Anopheles mosquito in Jurong and Mandai, so there should not be any more infections there. If they had been alerted earlier, some of the victims could have been spared the fever, headache, chills and vomiting that come with malaria.

Laxity in reacting could see both malaria and chikungunya become endemic here - the way dengue already is. If they do become endemic, the fight to keep people from falling ill with these diseases will become more difficult.

Worldwide, about 240 million people are infected with malaria each year, and a million die from it.

Chikungunya rarely kills, but the illness is more severe than dengue. Its victims suffer from severe joint aches that can last weeks or even months.

Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan has warned that Singapore should not 'belittle' this malaria outbreak.

But perhaps Singapore's malaria-free status for the past 27 years has bred a certain complacency, and chikungunya is relatively new. As a result, neither disease was on our radar screen, unlike dengue, which has been around for some time

But as Mr Khaw noted, it took a lot of effort for Singapore to become malaria-free. If the disease takes root here as dengue has, it will take a long time to eradicate it again.

Everyone - doctors, lab technicians and government officials - needs to take these diseases more seriously, and take action as soon as the diseases are detected.

Every citizen and resident in the country has a role to play too, since dengue, malaria and chikungunya are all spread by mosquitoes: Be assiduous in preventing this insect from breeding in the first place and none of these diseases will be able to spread.

No one is immune. The next person to be bitten by an infected mosquito could well be you.

No delay in malaria notification, says MOH
Straits Times Forum 22 Jun 09;

LAST Thursday's column, 'Malaria: Why is action so slow in coming?', questioned the time lag before the two malaria outbreaks were notified by the Ministry of Health (MOH) to the National Environment Agency (NEA).

The writer was concerned as any delay in notification would affect NEA's mosquito eradication efforts.

In the Jurong Island cluster, the first patient was diagnosed on May 12 by his doctor, who notified MOH on May 13. The second patient was diagnosed and notified to MOH on May 18.

Two notifications would trigger an epidemiological investigation but do not necessarily imply a local transmission. This is because malaria cases here are virtually all imported and foreign workers are particularly susceptible to the disease which could recur from time to time.

Hence, unlike dengue where every notification will trigger an immediate vector control operation by NEA, MOH needs to conduct epidemiological investigations to determine any local malaria transmission. This requires meticulous field investigations and will typically take several days.

In the Mandai-Sungei Kadut cluster, the first notification to MOH was on May 23. The second notification was on May 24, triggering the epidemiological investigations of that cluster.

MOH treats the possible re-emergence of malaria in Singapore very seriously. In these two instances, there was no undue delay in notification. There was, however, a delay of several days as the patients did not seek immediate medical attention.

Julie Sim (Ms)
Deputy Director,
Corporate Communications
Ministry of Health

Read more!

Space-saving Newater Changi plant

Straits Times 18 Jun 09;

'WASTE not' might just as well be the motto for Singapore's latest water reclamation plant in Changi.

To save space, the Republic's fifth Newater factory, due to be completed next year, is being built on top of the Changi Water Reclamation Plant's (CWRP) underground facilities.

Mr Young Joo Chye, deputy director of best sourcing department at national water agency PUB, said the stack concept is a unique feature: 'If we had not adapted we would have required three times the land.'

The Ulu Pandan water reclamation plant is spread over 46ha and can treat 79 million gallons per day (MGD). The CWRP covers 32ha but can treat 176MGD - or 320 Olympic-size pools - of waste.

Singapore produces 300 million gallons of sewage a day. The CWRP's deep tunnel sewerage system, buried beneath expressways running from north to east, has been built to last for 100 years.

The Changi Newater factory will have a capacity of 50MGD and with similar plants at Ulu Pandan, Kranji and Bedok will reclaim one-third of Singapore's waste water by 2011. The Seletar Newater plant and its water reclamation facility will be axed in 2011.

CWRP and its sewerage system is phase one of PUB's plans for waste water. Two water reclamation facilities at Bedok and Kim Chuan, have been phased out. In the next 10 to 20 years, another deep tunnel sewerage system and water reclamation plant will be built at Tuas and two or all of the remaining such plants at Kranji, Ulu Padan and Jurong will be shut down.

VICTORIA VAUGHAN

Changi Water Reclamation Plant to open next week
Hasnita A Majid, Channel NewsAsia 17 Jun 09;

SINGAPORE : Singapore's largest and most advanced water reclamation plant - the Changi Water Reclamation Plant - will open next week.

The pumping station at the new Changi Water Reclamation Plant is as high as a 25-storey building.

The station collects all used water from the deep sewerage tunnels via gravity.

The water then undergoes a treatment process at the plant before being discharged into the sea.

Part of that treated water will be processed into NEWater when the NEWater plant, which is being built on the rooftop of treatment facilities, is ready.

The NEWater factory which will be operational by May next year can produce 50 million gallons of treated water daily.

This is equivalent to the volume of water in 90 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

PUB said the Changi Water Reclamation plant stands out in its land use.

"The designers have incorporated a space saving design concept - things like stack treatment tanks and also stack treatment facilities like our sludge treatment facilities. All the treatment facilities are stacked on top of the other so as to save space," said Yong Wei Hin, assistant director of Changi Water Reclamation Plant.

Such a concept is the first in the world. With the stack concept, the Changi Water Reclamation Plant takes up only 32 hectares of land, which is about the size of 45 football fields.

PUB said that without this concept, it would have needed 3 times more land for the construction of the plant.

Another unique feature of the reclamation plant is a Sludge Dryer, which reduces the volume of sludge to be disposed. The sludge will then be incinerated and used as landfill.

PUB said the completion of the Changi Water Reclamation Plant concludes the first phase of its Deep Tunnel Sewerage System - a used water superhighway.

The second phase of the project will see a similar reclamation plant built in Tuas. It is expected to be ready in 10 to 20 years' time.

The Changi Water Reclamation Plant, which costs some S$3.7 billion to build, can treat 176 million gallons of water per day. This is equivalent to the volume of water in about 320 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

And with its completion, PUB said a few of the existing water reclamation plants will be shut down.

Two such reclamation plants - in Bedok and Kim Chuan - have already ceased operations. - CNA /ls

Singapore sewerage: No space to waste
Jessica Rowson, New Civil Engineer 17 Jun 09;

Increasing demands on Singapore’s constrained sewerage system has seen its water authority radically rethink its strategy. Jessica Rowson reports.

The treatment of wastewater in Singapore steps into the future next week with the opening of phase one of a deep tunnel sewerage system and the Changi water reclamation plant.

The project will be opened on Tuesday by Singapore’s prime minister Lee Hsien Loong as the centrepiece for Singapore International Water Week.

The concept for Singapore’s deep tunnel sewerage system was first conceived in the late 1990s. At that time, Singapore had in place a comprehensive wastewater system, comprising over 3,000km of sewers and pumping mains, 100 pumping stations and six water reclamation plants serving the tiny 704km² island.
A bold and radical approach

The demands on the system increased in line with population and industrial growth, but the option to continue expanding the treatment capacity of the plants and adding more pumping stations was unsustainable in land-scarce Singapore.

Confronted with these challenges, Singapore’s Public Utilities Board (PUB), embarked on a bold and radical approach with the plan to build an entirely new wastewater infrastructure that would take up less space and progressively phase out the existing system.

A £1.6bn deep tunnel sewerage system is PUB’s solution to meet Singapore’s wastewater needs for the next 100 years.

“One of the drivers was to reduce land take,” says PUB assistant director Yong Wei Hin. “Singapore has only around 700km² of land.”

Wastewater is collected in sewers and conveyed to the 48km long deep tunnel sewer which runs 20m to 55m below ground. The deep tunnel sewer takes the water to the centralised Changi Water Reclamation Plant for treatment. The new system depends on gravity − it is graded towards one end so there is no need for intermediate pumping.

“The new system doesn’t take up much space on top,” says Wei Hin. “It goes deep underground. Also the new plant takes up less space.”

Minimising the impact

Eight earth pressure balance tunnel boring machines (TBMs) were used concurrently to drive the 48km long tunnel, which varied between 3.3m and 6m in diameter.

The depth of the tunnel varies between 20m and 55m. In addition, TBMs and pipe jacking were used to create 60km of link sewers between 300mm to 3m in diameter between 10m to 55m below ground.

As the TBMs advanced, the team erected reinforced concrete pre-cast segments, before sealing and bolting them together in rings to provide primary ground support.

The route of the tunnels was specifically selected to minimise the impact on existing structures.

“We aligned the tunnel along the major expressway and not beneath buildings,” says PUB assistant director Yong Wei Hin.

For corrosion protection, concrete cast insitu with 225mm thick lining and 2.5mm thick high density polyethelene (HDPE) membrane were placed inside the bored tunnel.

This project has involved 49 main contractors and consultants, with over 300 subcontractors and suppliers. A joint venture of consultants CH2M Hill and Parsons Brinckerhoff carried out a feasibility study of the deep tunnel sewerage system and designed the 48km long tunnels.
An efficient new source

The Changi Water Reclamation Plant is efficient in its land use. The plant has doublestacked treatment tanks and a six-storey building with three storeys of basement that houses the sludge handling facilities.

At 32ha, it has taken up only a third of the conventionally designed water reclamation plant’s land area, according to PUB.

The treated wastewater is channelled to a processing facility called Changi Newater Factory on the rooftop of the reclamation plant.

Here it is further purified through advanced membrane technologies. The processed water can be consumed by humans and is used in industry where high purity water is required. “It’s another source of water for us,” says Wei Hin.

Besides being used as feedstock for the new Changi Newater Factory, treated wastewater the new reclamation plant is used for purposes such as tank flushing and for cooling systems in machinery and buildings.

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Indonesia, neighbours brace for severe fires, haze

Nopporn Wong-Anan, Reuters Alertnet 18 Jun 09;

June 18 (Reuters) - The brewing El Nino weather pattern is expected to bring an extended dry season to Indonesia this year, intensifying forest fires on the archipelago and raising the prospect of choking smoke blowing across neighbouring states.

As well as being unhealthy, the smog can cause major economic disruption costing the tourism, transport and farming sectors billions of dollars.

WHAT IS IT?

Forest fires are a regular occurrence during the dry season in areas such as Sumatra and Borneo, but the situation has been aggravated in recent decades as timber and plantation firms, as well as farmers, start fires to clear land. The fires in turn cause smoke that because of regional weather patterns often blows into nearby countries, although Indonesia's own most populous island of Java, where the country's capital Jakarta is situated, is generally little affected.

HOW BAD WAS IT?

The worst haze hit in 1997-98, when drought caused by El Nino led to major Indonesian fires. The smoke spread to Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand and cost more than $9 billion in damage to tourism, transport and farming.

More than 9 million hectares of land were burnt, 6.5 million of which were forested areas. The fire produced an estimated 1-2 billion tonnes of carbon.

HOW IS IT THIS YEAR?

Indonesia's Metro TV reported this week that haze had delayed some flights in Sumatra's Pekanbaru. Last week 47 hotspots were recorded in Riau province and temperatures were abnormally high at 35 degrees C (95 F).

WHY IS THE REGION HAZE-PRONE?

Southeast Asia hosts 60 percent of the world's tropical peatlands, mainly in Indonesia. Peat soil is comprised of decomposed plant material that burns relatively easily. Peat fires are hard to suppress as they can smoulder underground and resurface, and produce thick haze and a high amount of carbon.

WHAT IS THE REGION TRYING TO DO?

Spurred on by the 1997-98 fires, Southeast Asian countries signed the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution in 2002, but it has been toothless since parliament in Indonesia, the source of most of the smoke -- has yet to ratify the pact.

The pact calls for signatories to work closely together in monitoring, mitigating and taking preventive measures in combating transboundary haze.

Government agencies in neighbouring countries have from time to time offered to help Indonesia fight the fires -- for example by sending water carrying planes and fire fighters or providing satellite technology to map fires -- but Jakarta has not always accepted the help or has been slow to take it.

WHAT IS THE OUTLOOK?

The haze is likely to remain a threat until August at least. If the rainy season begins on time in September that should ease the situation. (Editing by Jerry Norton)

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Malaysian police seize smuggled turtle eggs

AFP 18 Jun 09;

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) — Malaysian authorities have said they had seized 2,900 turtles eggs and detained a Filipino who tried to sell them in a market on the island of Borneo, where they are considered a delicacy.

Saizal Hussin, an official with the marine police unit in Sandakan, in Borneo's eastern Sabah state, told AFP the eggs worth around 5,200 ringgit (almost 1,500 dollars) were smuggled from the southern Philippines.

Police arrested the man and intercepted two boats believed to be involved in the smuggling operation on Tuesday, Saizal said.

He said that officials expected such smuggling operations to increase in the coming months, with the egg-laying season stretching from June until September.

"We expect more smugglers to enter Malaysia to sell turtle eggs as they fetch higher prices here amid strong demand," he said.

Saizal said the turtle eggs had been handed to the wildlife department who may release any hatchlings that survive back into the sea.

In April environmental group WWF launched a campaign to stop Malaysians eating turtle eggs, in a bid to help save stocks of the marine creatures.

Turtle eggs are openly sold in markets in parts of Malaysia. Turtles once arrived in their thousands to lay their eggs on Malaysian beaches, but are now increasingly rare due to poaching and coastal development.

Under Malaysian law, it is illegal to collect turtle eggs without a permit from the fisheries department, but steady demand for turtle products and eggs in Southeast Asia continues to drive the trade

Read more!