Indonesia: Youth key to saving vulnerable primates: NGO

Arya Dipa, The Jakarta Post 25 Jan 16;

The government and the general public, especially younger generations, must take a leading role in the fight against illegal primate trading, a business that has reached alarming levels in Indonesia, a wildlife protection NGO has declared.

ProFauna Indonesia’s West Java campaigner Rinda Aunillah Sirait said the demand for exotic primates such as lutung (tailed leaf monkeys) and kukang (slow lorises), for use as pets, continued to increase despite the shrinking populations of the species in the wild.

The organization’s media monitors identified 67 cases of illegal primate trading reported in the mass media last year, slightly lower than the 74 cases recorded in 2014.

Last year, the highest number of cases took place in East Java, with 16, followed by seven cases in West Java and five in Bali.

“The actual number of cases, however, is probably much higher if you consider all those that went unexposed,” she said, adding that some reported cases had used social media, like Facebook, as a trading platform.

There are currently 600 primate species in the world, with 40 of them found in Indonesia. Some 70 percent of the primate species in Indonesia, according to ProFauna, are now vulnerable to extinction due to extensive deforestation and illegal poaching.

Apart from law enforcement, Rinda said, a campaign to protect rare primates must also involve young people, where demand for primates as exotic pets mostly comes from.

“These young people, for example, must know that to obtain a baby lutung, the poachers must kill its mother first,” she said.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) previously listed the Javan lutung, one of many lutung species, as endangered but in 2008 later updated its status to vulnerable.

The organization has also listed the Javan kukang and the Bornean kukang as critically endangered and vulnerable species, respectively.

According to the 1990 law on biological resources and ecosystem conservation, a person who buys or sells a protected species can be punished with a maximum five years’ imprisonment and a maximum fine of Rp 100 million (US$7,240).

West Java Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) technical division head Munarto, however, thinks that the law fails to create a significant deterrent effect.

“So far, the highest punishment for such cases has been two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment. Meanwhile, the amount of money earned through the illegal trade remains tempting,” he said.

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Climate change: Ocean warming underestimated

Researchers at Uni Bonn: Ocean warming plays a bigger role than previously believed
UNIVERSITY OF BONN EurekAlert 25 Jan 16;

To date, research on the effects of climate change has underestimated the contribution of seawater expansion to sea level rise due to warming of the oceans. A team of researchers at the University of Bonn has now investigated, using satellite data, that this effect was almost twice as large over the past twelve years than previously assumed. That may result in, for example, significantly increased risks of storm surges. The scientists are presenting their findings in the renowned scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

In principle, water in the oceans acts like a mercury thermometer: when the temperature goes up, the liquid expands and climbs up the little tube. Since the world's oceans are similarly locked in between the continents, their levels also rise when they heat up due to rising temperatures. "In the deeper parts of the ocean, even a small amount of warming is enough to create a significant rise in sea level," says Dr.-Ing. Roelof Rietbroek from the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation at the University of Bonn. An increase of several millimeters a year, he says, is not rare in deep-sea zones.

"To date, we have underestimated how much the heat-related expansion of the water mass in the oceans contributes to a global rise in sea level," says Dr. Jürgen Kusche, Professor of Astronomical, Physical and Mathematical Geodesy at the University of Bonn. Together with researchers at the Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ) in Potsdam and the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) in Bremerhaven, the geodesists used gravity field data from the GRACE satellites and sea-level measurements from the altimeters on Jason-1 and Jason-2 to calculate how much sea levels had risen, both due to warming-related expansion of the water and due to the increase of ocean mass from 2002 to 2014.

Effect is twice as large as the melting ice masses in Greenland

Until now, it was assumed that sea levels rose an average of 0.7 to 1.0 millimeters a year due to this "thermometer effect." According to the new calculations, however, the ocean's expansion contributed with about 1.4 millimeters a year -- in other words, almost twice as much as previously assumed. "This height difference corresponds to roughly twice the volume from the melting ice sheets in Greenland," says Dr. Rietbroek.

In addition, the sea-level rise varies strongly due to volume expansion in various ocean regions along with other effects. According to the research team's calculations, the Philippines hold the record with about 15 millimeters a year, while the levels are largely stable on the West Coast of the United States -- because there is hardly any ocean warming in that region.

Risk of storm surges could increase significantly

The main areas threatened by rising sea levels are coastal settlements, where regional changes can play a greater role than the global increase. "No country will raise its levees because of a couple of millimeters," says Dr. Rietbroek. "But these small amounts add up to several centimeters within decades. Under such conditions, the likelihood of a destructive storm surge could increase dramatically." From the perspective of the research team, it is thus worth keeping an eye on the expansion-related sea-level rise in the world's oceans in light of climate change. Little measurement data is available, they say, to show how much the oceans are warming up and expanding at depths of thousands of meters in conjunction with rising global air temperatures.

"Up to now, the physical expansion processes in the deep sea have been considered only to a limited extent," says the geodesy researcher from the University of Bonn. However, he says, they play a key role in estimating the climate effects. Therefore it would be highly interesting to observe future heat-related expansion of the world's oceans, using new satellite missions, and to reinterpret measurement data from the past. A longer observation period will help show what proportion of the rise in sea level is due to human activity, and what proportion is due to natural causes. Dr. Rietbroek: "In addition, the estimated trend in sea level is much less affected by natural fluctuations compared to the observed trend in global temperatures, so it is a more reliable indicator of climate change."

###

Publication: Revisiting the Contemporary Sea Level Budget on Global and Regional Scales, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1519132113


Ocean warming 'underestimated', study finds
The amount of sea level rise that comes from the oceans warming and expanding has been underestimated, and is likely about twice as much as previously calculated.

Channel NewsAsia 26 Jan 16;

MIAMI: The amount of sea level rise that comes from the oceans warming and expanding has been underestimated, and is likely about twice as much as previously calculated, German researchers said Monday.

The findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal, suggest that increasingly severe storm surges could be anticipated as a result.

Sea level can mount due to two factors -- melting ice and the thermal expansion of water as it warms.

Until now, researchers have believed the oceans rose between 0.7 to one millimeter per year due to thermal expansion.

But a fresh look at the latest satellite data from 2002 to 2014 shows the seas are expanding about 1.4 millimeters a year, said the study.

"To date, we have underestimated how much the heat-related expansion of the water mass in the oceans contributes to a global rise in sea level," said co-author Jurgen Kusche, a professor at the University of Bonn.

The overall sea level rise rate is about 2.74 millimeters per year, combining both thermal expansion and melting ice.

Sea level rise was also found to vary substantially from place to place, with the rate around the Philippines "five times the global rate."

Meanwhile, sea level on the US West Coast is largely stable because there is hardly any ocean warming in that area, said the findings.

- AFP/jb

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Best of our wild blogs: 26 Jan 16

Flash
Saving MacRitchie

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China-based developer launches $40bn cross-border project it claims is a ‘model’ of future housing

Aidan DevineNews Corp Australia Network Daily Telegraph 26 Jan 16;

Forest City is a $40bn Chinese development project underway to create a “futuristic” city for 500,000 people.

‘IF YOU build it they will come.’

This is the thinking guiding one of China’s most ambitious projects yet — a plan to build a “smart” city for 500,000 people, from scratch, on four man-made islands in South-East Asia.

Forest City will consist of four man-made islands in the strait separating Singapore and Malaysia.

The $40 billion project is the vision of Yeung Kwok Keung, chairman of private Chinese development company Country Garden, who wanted to build a city of skyscrapers atop three subterranean levels of roads and parking.

“The public would not see any vehicles on the road as [the] city would be filled with greenery on the top layer while underneath is for roads and parking,” Mr Yeung said.

But the project, dubbed “Forest City”, is not short of controversy. It is being built in the Strait of Johor, between Singapore and Malaysia — a region where vast amounts of housing are rapidly hitting the local market — and critics say there is no demand for a project of this scale.

Country Garden have countered these claims by pointing out that their aim is to attract buyers from all around the world, who will be drawn to the opportunity to live in a futuristic city of 300,000 homes, the likes of which has never been seen before.

Forest City will include sky gardens, its own duty free zone, man-made lakes and beaches, commercial buildings, schools, medical facilities and even its own water supply.

“Our philosophy is that we will create the market and the customers will arrive,” Mr Yeung said.

At the development’s Singapore launch, Country Garden CEO Mo Bin added that the company sees Forest City as a model for cities of the future — one they hope to spread around the world.

The city will have no cars on ground level.

Apartment buildings will be covered in vertical greenery.

He said Country Garden’s successes in China have given it a considerable pool of capital to use as a platform for entering housing markets around the world — including Australia, where the company is already active.

Forest City will be completed in 2035.


Multi-billion ringgit project on man-made islands
ZAZALI MUSA The Star 27 Jan 16;

GELANG PATAH: Thousands of prospective home buyers from Malaysia, China, Singapore and Hong Kong thronged the Forest City sales gallery here to have a look at the multi-billion ringgit mixed development project.

According to the company spokesperson, the sales gallery was for exclusive previews and bookings in preparations for the official launch of the project in the first-quarter of 2016.

The project is a joint-venture between Hong Kong-listed property developer Country Garden Holdings Co Ltd and Johor’s Esplanade Danga 88 Sdn Bhd.

The lush urban gateway is located on four man-made islands in Iskandar Malaysia, and the project spans over 1,386.05ha with an estimated investment of RM175.8bil over the next 20 years.

“Forest City is South-East Asia’s first and largest mixed-use green development in terms of the number of units to be built with a vertical greenery and smart city design theme,’’ said the spokesperson during a media tour recently.

He said the project is positioned close to the economic centres of South-East Asia and envisaged to become a global hub that would attract innovation and talents.

The project is expected to fuel the economy within Iskandar Malaysia and neighbouring Singapore.

Phase one of the project comprising high-rise condominium units and costal residences would be released for global sales in due course in Malaysia, China and Singapore.

The two to four-bedroom condominiums and high-rise coastal residences with a build-up area of between 818 sq ft and 1,915 sq ft are situated within leafy foliage corridors and car-free avenues in a gated and guarded precinct.

The entire development revolves around a multi-layered three dimensional city planning, with lush vertical greenery covered with dense foliage, multiple forms of public transportation and sustainable and renewable energy infrastructure.

Other facilities within the development include a world-class hotel, fitness club and swimming pool for residents and tourists with education, healthcare and tourism being the main economic pillars for the growth of Forest City.

The long-term planning for the project is to have dedicated entry points to the development such as a light rail transit system and ferry services linking Johor Baru and Singapore.

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Festival Fan: Yes to Music, No to Mess

Movement hopes to get fans at Laneway Festival to clear their rubbish
NOOR ASHIKIN ABDUL RAHMAN, The New Paper AsiaOne 26 Jan 16;

Horrendous.

That was how Mr Timothy Chua described the aftermath of last year's Laneway Festival.

Last January, heaps of rubbish were strewn on the ground by the record 13,000-strong crowd at the end of the 12-hour event.

This year, Mr Chua, who recently graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS), hopes to spark a change through his Traceless movement.

It aims to achieve a litter-free environment at this year's edition of the annual music festival on Saturday.

Laneway Festival kicks off at 11.30am at The Meadow at Gardens by the Bay, with the last acts taking to the stage at 10.55pm.

Together with his NUS undergraduate girlfriend, Miss Sumita Thiagarajan, Mr Chua hopes to get other festival goers to pick up after themselves.

The pair launched the Traceless movement via Facebook last week and urged others to join them in "changing old ways".

"Instead of leaving our trash on the grass, find a bin or if you can't find one (as we couldn't last year), bring it home with you in a tied-up plastic bag," they wrote.

AWARENESS

Mr Chua, 25, told The New Paper yesterday: "It's important that we learn to value our environment and help make the cleaners' jobs easier. Hopefully we can make this a yearly affair."

He added: "It's really about spreading the awareness and hoping the message takes root in people. If just one person among each group of friends is aware and makes the effort, we're already making progress."

Last year, the ugly mess left behind after the sold-out festival caught the attention of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, who both posted on Facebook to comment on the situation.

PM Lee wrote: "It takes continuous effort to keep Singapore clean. We need to progress from being a cleaned city to a truly clean city."

Later this week, Mr Chua and Miss Sumita, 21, plan to share tips on taking responsibility for one's trash with fellow festival attendees on the Laneway Festival and Traceless Facebook event pages.

On the event day itself, they might be making placards to remind festivalgoers.

"We shouldn't think that keeping the environment clean is someone else's problem to deal with.

"It's ambitious to expect zero trash, especially in the first year of the movement. But I hope to see a venue that is not covered in trash, with as little rubbish as possible," said Mr Chua.

At press time, his post about Traceless has garnered just 12 likes on the Laneway Festival event page.

But instead of feeling disappointed over the lacklustre response, Mr Chua is heartened as "this is better than nothing".

"I'm positive that more people will find out about it in the coming days, especially because we plan to post about it more and more," he said.

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Singapore, US agencies partner to find alternatives to animal testing

WONG PEI TING Today Online 26 Jan 16;

SINGAPORE — Less-cruel ways of testing the potential harm of chemicals that do not involve the use of animals could be developed here, under a partnership between Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and the United States’ Environment Protection Agency (EPA).

In particular, they will focus on the areas of kidney, liver and developmental toxicity, such as a novel type of “liver spheroids” that resemble liver tissue that could be used for toxicity testing.

The collaboration will also build on the EPA’s ToxCast programme, which has collated and generated data on more than 1,800 chemicals that can be used to predict the safety of those chemicals in the future.

The announcement comes amid growing urgency within scientific circles to seek animal-free methods in research, following a 2013 ban on the sale of cosmetics developed through animal testing in the European Union.

Tens of thousands of chemicals are currently in use, and hundreds more are introduced every year in products like preservatives, sunscreen filters and washing detergent.

But as chemical testing is resource-intensive, only a small fraction of chemicals have been fully evaluated for potential human health effects, said Dr Russell S Thomas, director of the EPA’s National Centre for Computational Toxicology, at the Symposium for Non-Animal Approaches to Predict Safety and Efficacy, organised by A*STAR.

Dr Kenneth Lee, senior director of A*STAR’s Biomedical Research Council, said a 2007 US National Research Council report had brought to the fore issues surrounding animal testing as a predictor for human toxicity. “Even though we share a 99 per cent similarity in genes with mice … humans are definitely no 70kg mice,” he said, adding that A*STAR had already developed capabilities that could help in the search for non-animal testing methods.

For example, a team at A*STAR’s Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) has already developed a kind of 3D liver spheroids that allow for better control during testing.

In the area of kidney toxicity, the IBN and the Bioinformatics Institute (BII) have developed a cell-based platform for the accurate prediction of kidney toxicity in humans. It uses proximal tubular cells, which IBN found a way to produce from human-induced pluripotent stem cells effectively. IBN and BII also developed a process that could test much larger numbers of compounds at much lower costs. WONG PEI TING

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Litterbugs caught in 2015 hit 6-year high

Samantha Boh, Straits Times AsiaOne 26 Jan 16;

THE number of people caught littering hit a six-year high last year.

More than 26,000 fines were issued by the National Environment Agency (NEA) - the highest number since 2009, when just over 41,000 were given out.

NEA told The Straits Times that most litterbugs were caught discarding cigarette butts, tissue paper, cigarette box wrappers and plastic cups inappropriately.

It added that about 69 per cent of them were Singapore residents.

Last year's figures mark a jump of 32 per cent from 2014, when 20,000 tickets were meted out.

In 2013, 9,346 tickets were issued for littering offences, up from 8,195 in 2012. More than 11,000 people were fined in 2011, down from almost 24,000 in 2010.

Last year also saw the number of corrective work orders imposed by the courts for littering rise to more than 1,300 from 688 in 2014. In 2013, the figure was 261.

NEA said the increase is due to stepped up enforcement efforts against littering.

It added that the Government has also taken a tougher stance on littering.

In April 2014, it doubled the maximum fines to $2,000 for the first conviction, $4,000 for the second and $10,000 for the third and subsequent ones.

The court can also impose a corrective work order, which requires offenders to clean public areas for up to 12 hours.

Those caught littering for the first time can face a $300 composition fine.

Edwin Seah, executive director of the Singapore Environment Council, said while the significant rise in the number of littering tickets issued is a concern, it is even more important to know and understand who are fined and why they choose to litter.

"A person would not litter at home or in the office, so why would they do so in public? It is a highly inconsiderate and anti-social behaviour," he said.

He added that values must be nurtured from a young age so everyone sees the need to protect and conserve the environment they share.

Chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Environment, Lee Bee Wah, suggested that the Ministry of Education remove cleaners from schools, as is the case in Japan and Taiwan, to inculcate such values.

In October last year, she suggested implementing a reward system like that in Taiwan, where people are given a portion of the summons payment after they submit evidence of litterbugs caught in the act.

She told The Straits Times that Singapore's littering woes are not due to lack of effort on the part of the Government but a lack of conviction from the public on the benefits of having a clean environment.

"They don't appreciate how littering can cause water to be collected in a discarded receptacle, resulting in mosquito breeding, for example," she said.

"In Singapore, some people think that they pay town council fees and, hence, someone will clean after them.

"We need a mindset change."

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Indonesia: How tweeting about floods became a civic duty in Jakarta

Monsoon floods hit the Indonesian capital in 2015, sparking 100,000 Twitter conversations. Here’s how those tweets were used in the rescue operation

Tomas Holderness and Etienne Turpin The Guardian 25 Jan 16;

Five major floods hit Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, in 2015, sparking more than 100,000 flood-related Twitter conversations in the city.

Jakarta, the world’s second largest city, is regularly devastated by flooding during the annual monsoon. The global proliferation of smartphones has meant citizens increasingly take to social media networks to share information during emergency events like these.

That’s why PetaJakarta.org (Map Jakarta) was born: it’s an online platform that transforms Twitter into an emergency data gathering and critical alert service during flooding in Jakarta. Last February, by asking residents to confirm the flood situation where they were, PetaJakarta.org was able to map 1,000 flooding sites across the city in real-time. The resulting flood map was used by the general public and emergency services alike and was viewed more than 160,000 times.

As far as we know, it is the first site of its kind to produce a real-time map of flooding in a city, driven by social media reporting. It allows citizens to contribute information without requiring them to learn a new technology, and provides answers to critical questions such as: “should I leave work early today?”, “is the evacuation shelter open yet?”, “which routes to my child’s school are flooded?” and “has the flood in my neighbourhood receded?”

Perhaps the most significant success of the system was its use by the Jakarta emergency management agency (BPBD DKI Jakarta). In 2015 the agency used PetaJakarta.org as an early warning system, allowing it to identify and cross-verify locations of flooding, speed up its response, and communicate with residents in flood-affected areas in real-time.

Reports from PetaJakarta.org were also fed directly to the Jakarta Smart City dashboard and to the office of the governor to provide a city-wide overview. At the launch of the platform in December 2014, the governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, called on government employees and residents to report flooding as part of their civic duty.

Jakarta’s citizens are keen users of smartphones and social media - a 2012 study found Jakarta the most active city in the world on Twitter.

This month PetaJakarta.org has begun to train 1,001 government employees how to use the platform during flood events and a second version of the platform has been launched, which integrates reports from the government-sponsored citizen-reporting app Qlue and Pasangmata, a citizen journalism app created by the Detik news agency.

The new version of the map will integrate flood reports with official government data, including river gauge readings and flood heights. This will provide a single point of reference for the emergency management agency to identify and alert residents to locations of flooding in real-time.

While previous funding initiatives have focused on networks of digital sensors to measure changes in the environment as part of the drive for smart cities, on their own these sensors do not create resilience. Digital sensors cannot provide context, convey urgency, or describe where aid is required.

Resilience is built by communities and agencies before, during and after a disaster. Resilience includes the work of volunteers, such as those in northern England who, following recent flooding, organised to clean streets, clear debris, and distribute aid to those in need.

In the information vacuum that follows disasters, residents the world over are organising themselves using social media. With extreme weather emergencies becoming more common because of climate change, cities and governments will need to harness that power.

Tomas Holderness and Etienne Turpin are co-directors of PetaJakarta.org, a project led by the SMART Infrastructure Facility

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Record hot years almost certainly caused by man-made warming

Alister Doyle Reuters Yahoo News 26 Jan 16;

OSLO (Reuters) - A record-breaking string of hot years since 2000 is almost certainly a sign of man-made global warming, with vanishingly small chances that it was caused by random, natural swings, a study showed on Monday.

Last year was the hottest since records began in the 19th century in a trend that almost all scientists blame on greenhouse gases from burning of fossil fuels, stoking heat waves, droughts, downpours and rising sea levels.

"Recent observed runs of record temperatures are extremely unlikely to have occurred in the absence of human-caused global warming," a U.S.-led team of experts wrote in the journal Scientific Reports.

Written before 2015 temperature data were released, it estimated the chance of the record run - with up to 13 of the 15 warmest years all from 2000 to 2014 - was between one in 770 and one in 10,000 if the series were random with no human influence.

Lead author Michael Mann, a professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State University, told Reuters that the group's computer simulations indicated those odds including 2015 had widened to between one in 1,250 and one in 13,000.

"Climate change is real, human-caused and no longer subtle - we're seeing it play out before our eyes," he wrote in an e-mail. Natural variations include shifts in the sun's output or volcanic eruptions, which dim sunlight.

"Natural climate variations just can't explain the observed recent global heat records, but man-made global warming can," Stefan Rahmstorf, a co-author from the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact, said in a statement.

The scientists tried to account for factors including that heat from one warm year spills over into the next. And temperatures in many years are almost identical, making it hard to rank their heat with confidence.

Last month, almost 190 nations agreed at a summit in Paris to the strongest deal yet to shift from fossil fuels towards cleaner energies such as wind and solar power to limit warming.

Separately on Monday, the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed U.S. and British data showing 2015 was by far the hottest year on record and noted that a powerful El Nino event, warming the surface of the Pacific Ocean, had stoked extra heat.

"The power of El Nino will fade in the coming months but the impacts of human-induced climate change will be with us for many decades," WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said.

(Reporting By Alister Doyle; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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Best of our wild blogs: 25 Jan 16

Would Singapore’s most beautiful damselfly species be extinct by the construction of Cross Island Line?
Bugs & Insects of Singapore

Beware of Snakes? Be Aware of Snakes!
Herpetological Society of Singapore

Wet and windy at Pulau Semakau East
wild shores of singapore

Late Afternoon Walk At Venus Drive (23 Jan 2016)
Beetles@SG BLOG

House Sparrow
Singapore Bird Group

Singapore Scallop (Volachlamys singaporina) @ Chek Jawa
Monday Morgue

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Water levels at Linggiu Reservoir still low

Carolyn Khew, Straits Times AsiaOne 25 Jan 16;

Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli (centre, in blue) attending a focus group session on water at The Future Of Us exhibition at Gardens by the Bay yesterday. Participants gave suggestions on how Singaporeans can be encouraged to conserve water.

Water levels in the Linggiu Reservoir in Johor - a major supply source to Singapore - are now at about 49 per cent, despite the start of the north-east monsoon season last month.

Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli revealed the figure yesterday, saying: "At the beginning of 2015, it was about 80 per cent... At 50 per cent, it is quite a precarious number, because starting at that level, if we are ever hit with a long spell of lack of rain again, the Linggiu Reservoir water level can fall all the way down.

"The weather is something we can't control and, unfortunately, the rain does not always fall where you want it to."

He was speaking to reporters after a discussion about water for future generations, organised by the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources. It is part of the series of SGfuture engagement sessions.

Dry weather has caused a steady depletion of water in Linggiu Reservoir over the last year. In August, water levels dropped to 54 per cent capacity before dipping to a record low of 43 per cent in November.

In 1994, Singapore built the reservoir upstream of the Johor River, to collect and release rainwater and to push sea water back into the sea. This ensures that the river water is not too salty to be treated by the Singapore-run treatment plant there.

The Republic can draw up to 250 million gallons a day (mgd) from the river - meeting up to 60 per cent of its current needs.

Mr Masagos said the Republic is working with Malaysia to ensure that its obligation of supplying Singapore with 250 mgd is met.

About 50 participants from non- governmental organisations, government agencies and members of the public gathered for yesterday's session at the The Future Of Us exhibition at Gardens by the Bay.

Participants gave suggestions on how Singaporeans can be encouraged to conserve water, which they felt many take for granted here.

Some suggested introducing water rationing exercises or increasing the price of water so that Singaporeans would be more mindful of their water usage.

Ms Chai Ning, 20, who is doing environmental studies at the National University of Singapore, said that schools could look into installing water meters to show how much is being used and at what cost.

"Singaporeans are very spoilt, in the sense that water is so easily available," she said.

"Many of us are not aware of the amount of water we use."

Singapore's current water demand stands at 400 mgd - enough to fill 730 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

By 2060, total water demand is expected to double, with the non-domestic sector making up 70 per cent of total demand.


Dialogue session brings up ideas to conserve water
About 40 participants at a dialogue session on water conservation have suggested ways to help to save water.
Chan Luo Er Channel NewsAsia 25 Jan 16;

SINGAPORE: Some ideas raised at a dialogue on water conservation on Sunday (Jan 24) included increasing the price of water, or equipping homes with devices to monitor water usage.

The dialogue involved about 40 youths, members of non-governmental organisations and industry leaders. The session, hosted by Environment and Water Resources ministry, is part of the ongoing SGfuture conversations, which provides Singaporeans with a platform to come together to share their views, aspirations and ideas for the future.

Singapore consumes 400 million gallons of water daily, the equivalent of 730 Olympic-sized swimming pools. About 45 per cent of this is from domestic use, as the average Singaporean uses 150 litres of water a day. Industries make up the remaining 55 per cent of demand.

At the dialogue, Environment and Water Resources Minister Masagos Zulkifli said that the nation needs to look at how it can cope with water demands in the long run, alongside the challenges of climate change.

Some solutions which participants came up with included equipping households with devices to view water consumption patterns in real-time. Some proposed educating the younger generation who have never undergone water rationing as well.

"Even though subconsciously we do think that it is important, but we don't really feel the pinch and the need, the very urgent need to save water when it comes out of taps so I think the solution to that is really how to bring the cost more upfront, like real-time scenarios of what happens when there is no water,” explained Chai Ning, a participant at the dialogue session.

There was also a proposal to increase the price of water. Currently, PUB charges S$2 for every 1,000 litres of water.

Said Ashokan Ramakrishnan, a participant: "In my home, water is the lowest cost item in my utility bills. And at that point, it's such a low amount it's difficult to make change. If there is a higher cost, it will force people to a point of discomfort and force us to change. The challenge here is around helping people understand how much they use and with that data available, people can make their own choices on how they want to change."

However, that is not a path the government wants to take.

"I hope we don't have to take tougher measures. But certainly like the episode the haze gave to us where air has always been free and then when it becomes polluted for a long time, we suddenly become more aware of how valuable it has been,” said Mr Masagos.

“We are pricing our water based on the long run marginal cost and because of that and the sources of supply, we are able to price it as cheap as possible, in fact, it is really cheap and therefore unfortunately because it is really cheap, people don't understand or cannot connect to the value it brings to us."

The ministry hopes sessions like these will spark more ground-up initiatives so citizens can take ownership of their water needs.

- CNA/xq

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Singapore authorities closely monitoring Zika virus: Amy Khor

There have been no cases of Zika diagnosed in Singapore yet, but the National Environment Agency and the Ministry of Health are monitoring the virus, which is spreading through Central and South America.
Olivia Quay Channel NewsAsia 24 Jan 16;

SINGAPORE: Authorities in Singapore are closely monitoring the Zika virus, which is spreading throughout Central and South America, said Dr Amy Khor on Sunday (Jan 24).

During a visit to nurseries along Thomson Road, the Senior Minister of State for Health added that no cases have been detected in Singapore yet. However, medical experts have said that the Republic is “extremely vulnerable” to the virus.

"Singapore is vulnerable to the virus simply because Singaporeans travel a lot to the region, and of course there are also tourists here," said Dr Khor.

She added that while there have been no cases of Zika diagnosed in Singapore so far, the National Environment Agency (NEA) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) did not rule out the possibility that there could be undetected cases since the symptoms of the virus are often mild, with some affected persons showing no symptoms at all.

MOH 'ACTIVELY CONSIDERING' PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES

In a statement on Sunday, MOH also said that it is "actively considering" precautionary measures against the virus. It added that NEA has stepped up its ongoing surveillance programme for the virus.

In the statement, MOH advised travellers to countries affected by the Zika virus to protect themselves from mosquito bites by wearing clothing that cover the body, arms and legs, applying insect repellent and sleeping under mosquito nets or in rooms with wire-mesh screen. "Pregnant travellers are advised to undertake strict precautions against mosquito bites," the ministry added.

MOH also said that although the disease symptoms associated with the Zika virus infection are "usually mild", the outbreak in Brazil "has been associated with central nervous system (brain) malfunction in foetuses and infants of infected mothers, and investigations are ongoing in Brazil to confirm that there is a causal link".

The Zika virus has spread to parts of Asia, including Cambodia and Thailand. The virus is spread by the Aedes mosquito, which also transmits dengue fever.

During the visit, Dr Khor also distributed educational material on the ways in which the public can stop mosquito breeding. With Chinese New Year around the corner and the public purchasing festive plants for their home, Dr Khor encouraged plant buyers to be more vigilant in dengue prevention.

A total of 477 cases were reported this week, 28 fewer than the corresponding period in the previous week.

Due to the warmer weather, NEA has seen an increase in the Aedes mosquito population. The agency has also found that mosquito breeding largely happens in homes. In 2015, NEA conducted more than 1.4 million inspections island-wide, and uncovered more than 19,000 instances of mosquito breeding.

- CNA/mz

Man, 47, dies from dengue in first reported death this year
The Singaporean had been staying at Marsiling Rise, in an area that was within an active dengue cluster with 10 cases, says MOH and NEA.

Channel NewsAsia 24 Jan 16;

SINGAPROE: A 47-year-old man has died of dengue at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH), said the Ministry of Health (MOH) and National Environment Agency (NEA) in a joint news release on Sunday (Jan 24).

The man is the first person in Singapore to have died from dengue this year. The local death toll in 2015 was four.

The Singaporean stayed at Marsiling Rise, and he was admitted to KTPH on Thursday. His condition deteriorated and he died on Friday, authorities added.

They also said that the patient had been staying in an area that was within an active 10-case dengue cluster.

"NEA has been inspecting the premises in the area, and detected and destroyed six counts of mosquito breeding thus far, of which five were found in residential premises and one in common areas," the media release stated.

It added that vector control operations to kill adult mosquitoes and destroy potential breeding habitats have been ongoing since the notification of the cluster on Jan 5.

- CNA/hs

47-year-old man dies from dengue; first reported fatality in 2016
Today Online 25 Jan 16;

SINGAPORE — Amid an anomalous surge in dengue cases this year, a 47-year-old man died from the mosquito-borne disease on Friday (Jan 22) — the first fatality of the year.

In a joint statement today, the Ministry of Health and the National Environment Agency (NEA) said the man, a Singaporean, lived at Marsiling Road and was admitted to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) on Thursday. His condition deteriorated and he died a day later in the hospital.

The area the patient lived in was within an active dengue cluster with 10 cases, the statement said. The NEA has been inspecting the premises in the area and found six instances of mosquito breeding — five on residential premises and one in a common area.

A check on the NEA’s dengue website yesterday showed 32 high-risk areas across the island with at least 10 cases each, as of last Friday. There are another 111 areas that are classified as high-risk, but with fewer than 10 cases each.

Cumulatively, there were 477 cases last week, the lowest this year but still higher than the record weekly total in 2015 — 458. The figures for the first two weeks are 547 and 628, respectively.

Two weeks ago, the NEA attributed the spike in cases to an increase in the Aedes mosquito population and “slightly warmer-than-usual year-end weather due to the El Nino phenomenon”, which shortens the dengue virus’ incubation periods as well as the mosquitoes’ breeding and maturation cycles. It also warned that dengue figures are likely to rise as the weather heats up.

The proportion of dengue cases due to the DENV-2 serotype, a common type of dengue virus here, has also risen sharply and now accounts for two-thirds of all dengue cases here, up from about half of all cases a month earlier, the agency said then. The DENV-1 serotype has accounted for most cases here since March 2013.

Today, Senior Minister of State for Environment and Water Resources and Health Amy Khor visited two nurseries along Thomson Road to remind people shopping for plants for the Chinese New Year celebrations to play their part in keeping dengue at bay by preventing mosquito breeding.

Traditionally, Chinese like to buy plants such as pussy willow and “lucky” bamboo for the festivities. Dr Khor noted that vases are potential breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

In a statement, the Health Ministry and NEA urged the public to stay vigilant and work together to prevent dengue cases from rising, including cooperating with NEA officers who wish to inspect their premises for mosquito breeding or to spray insecticide.

“We are seeing a further increase in the Aedes mosquito population due to the slightly warmer-than-usual year-end weather due to the El Nino phenomenon, which aids in breeding and spread of both the mosquito vector and the virus,” they said.

“In view of the warmer-than-usual weather persisting, the number of dengue cases in 2016 is expected to be high, with cases spiking earlier than in previous years. There is an urgent need to keep the mosquito population under control.”


Call for vigilance as Singapore is 'vulnerable' to the virus
Linette Lai, Straits Times AsiaOne 25 Jan 16;

A shopper with a flier on dengue prevention at a nursery in Thomson Road. The symptoms of dengue and Zika infections are broadly similar though Zika patients tend to develop conjunctivitis, more commonly known as red eye.

Singapore cannot rule out the possibility of the Zika virus making its way here, Senior Minister of State for Health Amy Khor said yesterday, as cases have been reported in neighbouring countries.


Dr Khor, who is also Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources, added that the virus is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is very common here and also transmits dengue.

"Singapore would be vulnerable to the potential import of the Zika virus, simply because Singaporeans travel a lot to the region and, of course, there are tourists here," she said.

Apart from the outbreaks in South America and the Caribbean, small numbers of cases have been detected in East Malaysia, Cambodia, the Philippines and Thailand, she said.

The Zika virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947. Infections have generally been considered mild, with many of those who have the virus not showing any symptoms.

However, the virus has recently been associated with brain malformation in foetuses and infants of infected mothers in Brazil, sparking widespread concern. The link, however, has not yet been conclusively proven.

Infectious diseases physician Leong Hoe Nam said the symptoms of dengue and Zika infections are broadly similar. But Zika infections tend to be milder, with less severe muscle aches and back pains than those usually associated with dengue, he told The Straits Times. In addition, Zika patients tend to develop conjunctivitis, more commonly known as red eye.

Dr Leong added that up to nine in 10 people infected with Zika may not show symptoms at all.

Yesterday, Dr Khor said that while there have been no reported cases of Zika here yet, Singaporeans should remain vigilant.

"There could be undetected cases, since the symptoms exhibited by infected persons could be mild, or some may not even exhibit (them)," she said.

Dr Khor was speaking on the sidelines of a visit to two plant nurseries along Thomson Road, during which she reminded shoppers to keep up the fight against dengue during the upcoming Chinese New Year.

Dengue numbers have been unusually high this year, with 136 active clusters as of last Friday, compared with 120 the week before.

This is attributable to a change in the prevailing strain of dengue, as well as the warmer weather in recent months, which facilitates mosquito breeding. While the predominant dengue strain for the past two years was Den-1, around two-thirds of all dengue cases now belong to the Den-2 serotype.

Yesterday, the National Environment Agency (NEA) and Health Ministry (MOH) released a joint statement on this year's first dengue death. The 47-year-old man had lived in Marsiling Road in an active dengue cluster. He was admitted to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital last Thursday, and died the next day.

The authorities said that steps to kill adult mosquitoes and destroy breeding spots have been in place in the area since Jan 5.

In the light of the expected spike in dengue cases this year, they said: "There is an urgent need to keep the mosquito population under control.

"Residents are urged to co-operate fully and allow NEA officers to inspect their premises for mosquito breeding and to spray insecticide to kill any infective mosquitoes."

In a separate statement on the Zika virus, the MOH advised people, especially those who are pregnant, to protect themselves from mosquito bites when travelling to countries with local transmission. They should wear clothing that covers the body and limbs, apply insect repellent, and sleep under mosquito nets or in rooms with wire-mesh screens.

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