Win for wildlife as krill fishing restricted in Antarctica

AFP Yahoo News 10 Jul 18;

Sydney (AFP) - Five major krill fishing firms Tuesday agreed to halt operations across huge swathes of the Antarctic to help protect wildlife in a move hailed as "bold and progressive" by conservationists.

The vast frozen continent is home to penguins, seals, whales and other marine life with krill a staple food for many species.

But a combination of climate change and industrial-scale fishing has been hitting populations of the small crustacean, with potentially disastrous impacts on larger predators.

Now the five companies that make up the Association of Responsible Krill Harvesting (ARK) -- from Norway, Chile, South Korea and China -- have agreed to stop fishing in sensitive coastal areas.

They also threw their support behind a planned network of marine protected areas (MPAs) throughout the Southern Ocean, including in places where they currently operate.

"Our members agree that the industry must develop sustainably to ensure long-term viability of the krill stocks and the predators that depend on it," ARK said in a statement.

"Today, we are moving forward with a pioneer initiative, implementing voluntary restricted zones for the krill fishery in the Antarctic Peninsula."

The shrimp-like crustacean, which is rich in protein, is primarily used in the aquaculture industry although its oil is a popular nutritional supplement.

ARK represent 85 percent of the Antarctic krill fishing industry and conservationists said it was a significant move.

"This is a bold and progressive response from these krill fishing companies, and we hope to see the remainder of the krill industry follow suit," said Greenpeace spokesman Phil Vine.

"The momentum for protection of the Antarctic's waters and wildlife is snowballing."

Plans were set out in 2009 to establish a series of MPAs in the Southern Ocean allowing marine life to migrate between areas for breeding and foraging.

But progress has been slow by members of the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) -- a treaty tasked with overseeing protection and sustainable exploitation in the area.

While a massive US and New Zealand-backed MPA around the Ross Sea -- covering an area roughly the size of Britain, Germany and France combined -- was agreed in 2016, an Australia and France-led push to create a second protected area in East Antarctica failed last year.

Russia and China were widely seen as the stumbling blocks -- worried about compliance issues and fishing rights.

Consensus is needed from all 24 member countries and the European Union.

They meet again in Hobart in October when a third, German-backed plan to protect the Weddell Sea, which extends from the southeast of South America over some 2.8 million square kilometres (1.1 million square miles), will also be on the agenda.

Andrea Kavanagh, head of The Pew Charitable Trusts' Antarctic and Southern Ocean work, said she hoped CCAMLR could build on the krill decision.

"Governments should follow industry's lead and support MPAs," she said.

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New used water and waste treatment plant in Tuas to expand water supply and landfill lifespan

Audrey Tan and Luke Anthony Tan Straits Times 9 Jul 18;

SINGAPORE - More than $5 billion in tenders will be called for a new plant in Tuas that will utilise waste to expand the Republic's water supply and extend the lifespan of its one and only landfill on offshore Semakau Island.

The tenders, which will be called over the next five years, involve civil, mechanical and electrical engineering works. They are for a novel, first-of-its kind facility in Tuas, which will incorporate both used water and waste treatment plants in one facility, said national water agency PUB and the National Environment Agency (NEA) on Monday (July 9).

Construction of the facility is expected to start next year (2019), and will be completed in phases from 2023. It is expected to be fully ready by 2027.

Tuas Nexus will be the first plant that enables PUB to reclaim industrial used water, for use by industries on Jurong Island and Tuas. Traditionally, industrial used water is treated before being discharged into the sea.

Tuas Nexus will also be the first to treat both used water and food waste in the same plant to produce biogas.

Used for electricity generation, biogas is produced when organic material in food waste or sludge from used water react with bacteria.

By combining used water sludge with food waste, Tuas Nexus will be able to increase the amount of biogas produced by 10 per cent. This is because of the higher organic content in food waste, said PUB principal engineer Mark Wong.

Coupled with other renewable energy sources at Tuas Nexus - including solar panels and the conversion of heat produced by the incinerators to electricity - the plant will be completely energy self-sufficient.

This means it will not need to draw fossil fuel-generated electricity from the grid to power its operations, said NEA and PUB in a statement.

In fact, excess electricity - enough to power up to 300,000 homes - will be exported back to the national grid.

Said Mr Yong Wei Hin, director for PUB's deep tunnel sewerage system phase 2: "The Tuas Nexus is a bold innovation in the action for climate change and sustainability. This pioneering facility... marks a new way in which used water and solid waste will be treated in Singapore."

He was speaking to the media at the Tuas Nexus showcase at the Singapore International Water Week and CleanEnviro Summit Singapore conferences held at the Marina Bay Sands.

The integration of both water and waste treatment plants in Tuas Nexus will result in overall carbon savings of more than 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year - equivalent to taking 42,500 cars off the roads.

The new plant, which will also allow incineration bottom ash (IBA) to be extracted from waste, will enable Singapore to expand the lifespan of Semakau Landfill, said Mr Joseph Boey, project director at NEA's integrated waste management facility.

Some 20 per cent of every tonne of incinerable waste comprises incineration bottom ash.

"If we are able to extract this IBA for use in other areas, such as in construction, we will be able to reduce the amount that goes into the landfill and expand the lifespan."

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Lightning strike cause of Pulau Busing oil storage tank fire: Shanmugam on preliminary findings

Channel NewsAsia 9 Jul 18;

SINGAPORE: Preliminary investigations show that a lightning strike was the cause of the oil storage tank fire on Pulau Busing in March, which took firefighters six hours to extinguish.

This was revealed by Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam on Monday (Jul 9), in his written response to a Parliamentary question by MP Fatimah Lateef.

Preliminary findings indicate that the fire was caused by a lightning strike on the rooftop of the tank, Mr Shanmugam said, adding that investigations are still ongoing.

He also stressed that the Fire Code requires oil storage tanks to have a lightning protection system, and that the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) is investigating why the system seemed to have failed in this case.

A total of 128 SCDF personnel and 48 firefighting and support vehicles were deployed for the operation, in addition to the Company Emergency Response Team (CERT) members stationed on Pulau Busing.

According to Mr Shanmugam, CERT were the first responders to the fire, and helped managed to prevent the spread of the blaze before SCDF arrived.

He added that during the fire, other companies on neighbouring islands also provided resources to help fight the fire.

Special large monitors that discharge 23,000 litres of foam solution per minute, as well as specific fire appliances to cool the adjacent oil tanks, were also deployed to fight the fire, Mr Shanmugam said.

Source: CNA/am(aj)

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Malaysia: Call for efforts to save Malayan tiger

Bernama New Straits Times 9 Jul 18;

KUALA LUMPUR: Poaching still remains the most urgent and critical threat to the Malayan tiger, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature-Malaysia (WWF-Malaysia).

Its executive director and chief executive officer Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma noted that the presence of foreign poachers in Malaysian jungles underlined the urgent need for the country to step up wildlife protection efforts on the ground, including transboundary collaboration.

“The illegal wildlife trade is an organised crime that is threatening the existence of many species. It operates the same way as illegal drugs and weapons – by dangerous international networks with links across the globe,” he said in a statement today.

Its executive director and chief executive officer Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma noted that the presence of foreign poachers in Malaysian jungles underlined the urgent need for the country to step up wildlife protection efforts on the ground, including transboundary collaboration. (NSTP file pic)
He said, by practising intolerance towards wildlife crimes and working together to support conservation, there was still hope to protect the Malayan tiger.

“It’s time for the Malayan tiger to be made a national priority and a collective responsibility of all Malaysians,” he said, noting that Global Tiger Day would be marked on July 29. – Bernama


Be the voice of our tigers
Letters to The Star 10 Jul 18;

WE are losing our Malayan tigers, the symbol of our national pride. The Malayan tiger proudly flanks our jata negara or national emblem. It is a representation of strength and courage, an inspiration to Malaysians from all walks of life.

As the world gears up to celebrate Global Tiger Day on July 29, Malaysia is in the spotlight again after the recent raid announced by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) in Pahang last week. Some of the most valuable animal parts seized, including skin, were suspected to be from three Malayan tigers, one of which is believed to be a tiger cub.

NGOs, enforcement authorities, corporate stakeholders and local communities alike are racing to keep our tigers alive. Yet, despite all the collaborative efforts, poaching for the illegal wildlife trade remains the most urgent and critical threat to the Malayan tiger.

The influx of foreign poachers into Malaysia’s forests is indeed alarming. In last week’s raid, six Vietnamese poachers were arrested, all of whom are believed to be part of an illegal network that targets mainly tigers.

Over the past year, there has been significant progress in tiger conservation efforts in Malaysia. For instance, Perak made history last year when it became the first in South-East Asia to register Royal Belum State Park for Conservation Assured Tiger Standards (CATS), which is an accreditation scheme that encourages tiger conservation areas to meet a set of standards and criteria to assure effective and long-term tiger conservation.

During a high-level Dialogue on Enhancing Tiger Conservation Efforts in July 2017, the Perak state government committed to achieving zero poaching by 2020. The state reiterated this commitment at the Royal Belum–WWF Conservation Summit held in November 2017.

While it may seem far-fetched, zero poaching is not impossible. A success story is Nepal, which achieved 365 days of zero poaching for rhinos, elephants and tigers between 2013 and 2014. This was only possible due to effective and continuous collaborative efforts among enforcement agencies like the police and armed forces, and regulatory bodies such as the National Tiger Conservation Committee (chaired by the Prime Minister of Nepal) and the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau. These bodies were established specifically to address poaching and the illegal wildlife trade network holistically from an enforcement perspective.

Nepal has now set a precedence in curbing poaching on a global scale.

WWF-Malaysia has always advocated the need to have more intelligence-based and collaborative efforts among other enforcement agencies to support anti-poaching operations. We commend Perhilitan on the recent bust and for their continuous efforts to collaborate with the army and police in fighting wildlife crime.

However, for Malaysia to achieve zero poaching as Nepal has, it will likely require a much bigger step-up in collaborative efforts especially due to the lack of adequate enforcement staff on the ground to protect our forests.

The illegal wildlife trade is an organised crime that is threatening the existence of many species. It is operated in the same way as the illegal drugs and weapons trade by dangerous international networks linked across the globe.

The scale of the global illegal wildlife trade as a business is massive, with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) valuing it at between US$7bil and US$23bil a year in 2017.

In a report released in March 2017, UN Environment and Interpol also estimated the value of environmental crime at up to US$258bil annually. With a growth rate of five to seven percent each year, environmental crime is outpacing the growth of our global economy by two to three times. After narcotics, human trafficking and weapons, wildlife crime is the fourth most lucrative illegal business in the world.

Yes, we stand to lose our tigers. However, by practising intolerance towards wildlife crimes and working together to support conservation, there is still hope to protect our Malayan tiger for generations to come.

We can still ensure their survival if we act now, instead of standing by the sidelines while their extinction is documented.

Even our Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, was recently quoted saying, “if we do not care and consider animals as something that could become extinct, there will not be any more animals in the world one day.”

It is time for the Malayan tiger to be made a national priority and the collective responsibility of all Malaysians. This Global Tiger Day, be a voice for our tigers.

WWF-MALAYSIA

Petaling Jaya

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Elephant poaching: 'Sick' EU ivory sales 'cover up illegal trade'

Matt McGrath BBC 10 Jul 18;

The open, legal sale of antique ivory in many European countries is covering up a trade in illegal and recently poached ivory, campaigners say.

Researchers from environmental group Avaaz bought 100 ivory items and had them radiocarbon dated at Oxford University.

Three quarters were modern ivory, being sold illegally as fake antiques.

Ivory from an elephant killed by poachers as recently as 2010 was among the items passed off as being antique.

"It's sick," said Bert Wander from Avaaz, which organised the purchase of the items.

"I'm looking at the trinkets we bought on my desk, and to think that an elephant with all the things we are learning about them, about their cognition and their advanced societies, and to think that one of them has died for this bracelet I'm holding now, it makes you sick to your stomach."

The items were purchased from both antique dealers and private sellers in 10 countries across Europe.

All the ivory pieces were advertised as originating from before 1947 or had no date information. The 1947 date is important because the EU classes ivory from before this date as antique and it can be traded without restriction.

When the items were analysed by Oxford University's Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, more than 74% were found to be from after 1947.

The tests are able to show when the ivory grew on a living elephant, not when the creature died. This means the ivory could have come from elephants killed decades after the date of the sample.

Of greater concern, though, was the fact that one in five were from elephants killed after the global ban on the ivory trade came into force in 1989. One piece purchased in Spain may have come from an elephant whose ivory was formed after 2010.

All the pieces bought in Bulgaria, Italy and Spain were illegal, as were large majorities of the items in France, the Netherlands and Portugal.

In the UK, one fifth of the pieces purchased by Avaaz were outside the law.

The EU says that last year it strengthened measures to fight poaching and end the trade in raw ivory. Tackling trafficking should be a priority for all enforcement agencies in member states, officials said.

"The Commission will continue to fight any kind of illegal trading, including the fraud of passing off recent ivory as antique," said EU spokesman Enrico Brivio.

"Addressing elephant poaching and ivory trafficking is a cornerstone of the EU action against wildlife trafficking and the EU has recently adopted numerous initiatives to this end."

Why is this important?

European Union officials have claimed that there is no evidence that the legal ivory trade in the EU is helping to cover up a trade in illegal items - but this survey calls that into question. It will undoubtedly lead to calls for a complete ban.

Does the sale of small trinkets kill elephants?

The EU legal market in ivory may consist mainly of small items, but they add up to several tonnes sold each year.

Europe also remains a major exporter of legal, worked ivory to big Asian markets which is also encouraging poaching across Africa, according to experts.

While the numbers of elephants being killed has dropped for the last five years, around 55 are still being killed every day. In many locations, the future of the elephant will not be sustainable if this keeps up.

How come this loophole exists?

The EU has tried to curtail the trade in legal ivory being used as a cover for illegal sales by requiring all material acquired between 1947 and 1990 to be sold with a government issued certificate. But all a seller has to do is say that they believe the ivory comes from before 1947 and it's almost impossible to contradict them.

Why hasn't the EU cracked down before?

Accurately determining the age of a piece of ivory is impossible without going to the expense of radiocarbon dating.

How many ivory markets are left?

Not many. Some of the leading markets have now banned any sales including Hong Kong, the world's biggest, which will phase out the legal trade over the next three years.

China has also banned all trade except what it terms "genuine antiques". The US has effectively banned trade while the UK is in the process of adopting a near total ban on ivory sales, with exemptions for the trade in musical instruments and ivory sales to museums.

What will happen in the EU now?

The European Parliament has already called for a ban, and member states like the UK are leading the way with a comprehensive phase out of legal sales on the way to becoming law.

The European Commission is currently reviewing whether or not EU restrictions on ivory go far enough.

"The EU consultation which closed in December 2017, collected almost 90,000 responses," said Eleonora Panella, from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw).

"We know that the vast majority was from people asking for stringent measures, this has for sure an impact of further decisions. We hope that a good decision will be taken soon, we were expecting something already this July, [it] now seems that it has been postponed.

"The Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference in London in October could be the perfect moment to show the leadership we are asking for."

I have an ivory trinket, what should I do with it?
If the sales of all ivory pieces is outlawed across the EU and the UK, many people will mixed feelings about the small tokens they're left with.

"We would support exemptions such as the ones proposed in the UK for family heirlooms and historical items," said Eleonora Panella.

"These should be allowed to be passed down to family members or donated to museums, but they cannot be bought, sold or traded for goods in kind."

People might also want to donate them to an elephant charity which could arrange for their destruction or use them in educational activities.


Illegal ivory openly sold across Europe: study
AFP Yahoo News 11 Jul 18;

Brussels (AFP) - Traders are selling illegal ivory openly across the European Union through a loophole allowing trade in "antique" items, the campaign group Avaaz charged Tuesday.

Avaaz said nearly all of the 109 ivory pieces it bought in 10 EU countries were found to be illegal after they were tested at Britain's Oxford University.

It said one-fifth of the items came from elephants killed after the global ivory trade was banned in 1989 and three quarters from animals slaughtered after 1947.

EU law requires government certificates for the sale of ivory acquired after 1947 and before 1990, but Avaaz said none of the ivory it bought had a certificate.

"This bombshell evidence proves beyond doubt that illegal ivory is being sold across Europe," Avaaz campaign director Bert Wander said in a statement.

"It must spark the end of this bloody trade. Every day the sale of these trinkets continues is a day closer to wiping out majestic elephants forever," Wander added.

Avaaz bought the items over a four-month period from Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Britain.

It said the study counters claims by the European Commission, the 28-nation EU's executive arm, that there was no evidence of illegal ivory being sold.

The new evidence, it added, puts pressure on the EU to ban the trade outright because so many pieces are being passed off as "antique" ivory from elephants killed before 1947, which is legal.

The most recent ivory tested by Oxford's radio-carbon dating unit was from after 2010, Avaaz said.

"The Commission should close the antique ivory loophole, end ivory exports from Europe and shut down the EU's internal trade in raw tusks," Avaaz said.

"This is the only way it can preserve its status as a leader in fighting the wildlife trade and protecting African elephants," it added.

The EU's environment commissioner Karmenu Vella ‏pledged to look into the claims after visiting Avaaz's exhibition of illegal ivory outside the Commission in Brussels.

The work is a "very helpful contribution for @EU_Commission as we go through process of planning our next steps," Vella tweeted. "Protecting living elephants the priority."

Avaaz said China, Hong Kong and Britain have all implemented or announced ivory bans over the last year.

It said as many as 30,000 elephants are slaughtered each year, warning the animals could be extinct in the wild within decades if not enough action is taken.

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HDB looking into deploying floating solar panels in open sea

Today Online 8 Jul 18;

SINGAPORE — To accelerate the adoption of solar energy in the Republic, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) is looking into setting up floating solar panels in the open sea.

To do so, the HDB announced on Sunday (July 8) that it will start a research collaboration with landscaping firm, ISO Landscape to begin research to test its modular system — a support structure that can hold solar panels — in open sea conditions.

The agreement, which will be signed on Tuesday at the World Cities Summit, will cover the study and development of a floating solar system for coastal marine conditions, and will look at how to combat harsher conditions such as stronger winds and wave action.

HDB chief executive officer Cheong Koon Hean said the statutory board has been spearheading solar initiatives and accelerating solar adoption across the island in the past 10 years.

“One way to further harvest Singapore’s solar energy is to look beyond the sky to the sea. This is a practical approach considering Singapore’s land constraints,” he added.

Currently, a large majority of solar panels are installed on the rooftops of HDB blocks, with more than 2,400 blocks installed or being fitted with solar panels. By 2020, about 5,500 HDB blocks will be fitted with or identified for solar installation.

However, as solar energy generation is dependent on surface area, Singapore’s land constraints remain a challenge, said the HDB, hence the decision to look at floating solar farms on water bodies.

On water, the solar panels can potentially receive maximum sunlight as these water bodies are typically free of obstruction.

HDB’s latest move comes after its modular system — designed in-house by their engineers — was successfully implemented in Punggol Waterway in 2011, creating a floating wetland system.

The advantages of the modular system, which utilises a unique interlocking solution to create a light-weight structure with high strength and rigidity, allows flexible configuration in any size and shape to carry heavy loads. It can also be easily assembled and placed anywhere on the water surface.

The system has since been deployed to support a floating solar system in Tengeh Reservoir, located in Tuas, earlier in May.

The HDB partnered with Million Lighting Co to develop a 100 kilowatt peak (KWp) floating solar system under the Tengeh project, which started in January this year. This system comprised of 864 modules, with each module able to support up to 75kg.

Together, they support 368 solar panels and inverters, weighing some 9,400 kg. The floating solar farm at Tengeh was officially launched in May, and is estimated to generate about 120 MWh of electricity a year, reducing carbon emissions by 60 tonnes annually.

With that success, the HDB is studying the expansion of its use in areas beyond greening. One possibility being looked into is the use of this system to hold solar panels on water bodies to harvest solar energy.


HDB looking at expanding use of floating system for solar panels in open sea
Audrey Tan Strait Times 8 Jul 18;

SINGAPORE - In land-scarce Singapore, the quest to harvest more energy from the sun will soon go one step further.

The Housing Board (HDB) - one of the agencies leading the nation's efforts to ramp up solar energy use - is setting its sights on a novel area of research: the sea.

On Sunday (July 8), HDB announced that it will be signing a research collaboration with a landscaping firm in the coming week for the study and development of a floating solar system for coastal marine conditions.

The study, said HDB, would see how its floating system can withstand harsher environmental conditions in the sea, such as stronger winds and wave action.

HDB chief executive Cheong Koon Hean said that over the past decade, the agency has been spearheading solar initiatives and accelerating solar adoption in Singapore.

For example, solar panels have been installed or are being fitted in more than 2,400 HDB blocks across Singapore. By 2020, about 5,500 HDB blocks will be fitted with or identified for solar installation.

The energy generated by these panels usually go to common services such as lifts, water pumps and lighting for common areas.

More than 95 per cent of Singapore's grid energy comes from the burning of natural gas.

Though natural gas is considered the cleanest form of fossil fuel, its combustion still contributes to the production of greenhouse gases.

Renewable energy from the sun, however, would reduce Singapore's reliance on fossil fuels. Its use is also in line with the Republic's target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

But considering Singapore's small land area, there is a limit to how much renewable energy from the sun can be harvested from solar panels installed on land.

"One way to further harvest Singapore's solar energy is to look beyond the sky to the sea. This is a practical approach, considering Singapore's land constraints," Dr Cheong said.

HDB's floating modular system, first tested in 2011 at a man-made waterway in Punggol to hold wetland plants, was subsequently deployed to hold solar panels at a solar panel test bed in Tengeh Reservoir in Tuas in May this year.

The latest research agreement, which HDB will sign with ISO Landscape during the World Cities Summit, a sustainability conference this week, will look at how the HDB-designed floating modular system can hold solar panels in open sea conditions.

Said Dr Cheong: "HDB will further collaborate with industry partners to explore how best we can expand the use of our system in open sea conditions for solar deployment."

Dr Thomas Reindl, deputy chief executive of the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (Seris), said that Singapore has, in theory, a few areas where off-shore floating solar systems would be possible.

"The locations should have the right balance between the distance from the main island, to avoid lengthy submarine cable connections, and other marine uses, such as recreational activities, protected marine life areas or shipping routes," he told The Straits Times, although he said it was too early to point out specific locations.

He added that other than wave action, greater currents and the corrosiveness of salt water, another important factor to consider during the study would be biofouling - the growth of marine organisms such as barnacles - on floats.

"Singapore has some of the richest waters and a vibrant marine life, hence the growth of barnacles and other marine life on the floats has to be considered during design and operation. Also, soiling from birds could be an issue, which has been observed in near-coastal floating solar installations such as the Singapore test bed and systems in the United Kingdom," said Dr Reindl.

While HDB's announcement represented Singapore's first official foray into testing solar panels on the sea, there are other ongoing research projects studying the use of solar panels in inland water bodies such as reservoirs.

The Tengeh Reservoir test bed, for example, is being used to study the performance and cost-effectiveness of 10 different solar photovoltaic systems, including the one using HDB's engineering system.

Separately, national water agency PUB is also doing studies on how solar panels can be added to four reservoirs here to power its energy-intensive water treatment processes.

Said Dr Reindl: "Off-shore floating photovoltaic (solar) systems have great potential for Singapore. Theoretically, there could be solar installations deployed on nearby waters and it could help to speed up the deployment of solar PV in the city state. Singapore could set a trend in that area and become one of the largest adopters of such innovative technology worldwide."

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Smart mosquito traps to go on trial at the end of this year: NEA

LOUISA TANG Today Online 8 Jul 18;

SINGAPORE — Mosquito traps with sensors that can help identify the species and gender of a mosquito will go on trial at residential estates at the end of this year, potentially reducing the manpower needed to check the devices.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) showcased a prototype of the Smart Gravitrap at the CleanEnviro Summit Singapore on Sunday (July 8). The sensors capture information on how the mosquitoes fly and transmit the data to a back-end server with a database containing signatures unique to each gender and species of mosquito.

Gravitraps, which are black cylindrical containers with sticky surfaces that trap female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes looking for water surfaces to lay their eggs, have been in use for several years and about 50,000 have been deployed islandwide in the fight against dengue fever.

NEA officers inspect each trap every one to two weeks, but they will not have to do so for the Smart Gravitrap.

The NEA’s Environmental Health Institute developed the prototype in collaboration with local start-up Orinno Technology. It completed laboratory testing in March and found that the Smart Gravitrap could accurately count the number of mosquitoes trapped, as well as identify the species and gender to a “good level of accuracy”.

Data captured by Smart Gravitraps. Photo: Jason Quah/ TODAY

About 10 Smart Gravitraps will be used in the six-month trial at residential estates at the end of this year, through which the design of the devices will be refined.

“It will enhance the surveillance of mosquito population and spread of mosquitoes in Singapore, and help in our analysis of dengue prevention,” said NEA’s chief technology officer Patrick Pang.

Also showcased at the summit were shape-shifting cleaning robots developed by a team from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).

The team, led by Assistant Professor Mohan Rajesh Elara from the university’s engineering product development department, came up with about 12 different robots that can clean staircases, collect samples from drains and clean windows.

Some of the robots are able to attach themselves to one another and change configurations to get into tight spaces, which current-day vacuum cleaning robots are unable to do, said Asst Prof Mohan.

One of the prototypes — inspired by the Tetris video game — can be configured in seven ways, depending on the furniture it has to work around in order to clean the floor.

The prototypes are currently on trial at various parts of the SUTD campus, such as in food courts and drains.

The team will work with the NEA to conduct trials outside the university in the next one to two years.

Meanwhile, three researchers from Singapore Polytechnic (SP) have developed a way to recycle more than 90 per cent of solar photovoltaic panels.

The rapid adoption of solar power worldwide has raised questions on what happens to solar panels after their useful life, which is typically about 20 to 25 years. In 2016, the Asia-Pacific region became the largest solar-powered region in the world.

Currently, just half of photovoltaic panel materials are recycled, and valuable materials such as silver and aluminium may end up in landfills.

The waste generated when solar panels are discarded must be reduced, said SP research scientist Thong Ya Xuan, whose team is able to reclaim the tempered glass, copper ribbons, silicon wafers, aluminium compounds and silver from the panels.

Currently, it takes at least two people about two to three days to manually dissemble a full-sized panel for recycling, said Dr Thong. Her team aims to streamline and automate the process and recycle up to 100 panels a day.

The researchers are now exploring partnerships with several companies and government agencies to co-fund and build a demo photovoltaic recycling plant at the polytechnic.

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Five agreements inked to take Asean’s smart cities plan forward

LOUISA TANG Today Online 8 Jul 18;

SINGAPORE — In Thailand’s Chonburi province, a smart city — also the country’s largest industrial city — is aiming to rely solely on itself for power using renewable energy sources.

The Amata Smart City Chonburi, which houses 5,000 expatriates and 200,000 workers, plans to set up a Smart Grid Project and build a new waste-to-energy power plant, among other measures.

On Sunday (July 8), Amata signed a letter of intent with the Yokohama Urban Solution Alliance at the inaugural Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) Smart Cities Network (ASCN) meeting, to work on its smart energy management system.

It was one of five agreements inked between ASCN cities, solution providers and external partners on Sunday.

The ASCN was established in April and has 26 pilot cities such as Yangon (Myanmar), Cebu (the Philippines) and Luang Prabang (Laos) on board.

Asean has the opportunity to be a “frontier society” and pioneer new digital services serving the needs of its people, said Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan at the meeting.

By 2030, 90 million more people in the Asean are expected to be living in cities, and “middleweight” cities of between 200,000 and two million residents will drive 40 per cent of the region’s growth, he said.

Transport, housing and IT networks are already starting to feel the strain from this trend. At the same time, technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence are transforming the way people live, work and play, he said.

"We need to get ahead of this curve primarily because we need to ensure that our citizens will continue to have access to good jobs, good pay… and that they will be able to feel that this revolution benefits them, their families and their children for the future," he said.

The ASCN will respect the Asean members’ sociocultural, political and economic diversity. Each member will have their own national systems but they will be interoperable.

"Because we are diverse, we will not impose a monolithic system on everyone. Whether you talk about e-payments or planning or logistics, I do not believe that there will be a single dominant system across Asean," said Dr Balakrishnan.

According to him, Thailand and Vietnam are supportive of further developing the ASCN in 2019 and 2020, respectively, when they chair Asean after Singapore’s stint this year.

Speaking to reporters, Dr Passakon Prathombutr, Thailand’s ASCN chief smart city officer, agreed that different cities have to adapt their technologies to their own culture and climate.

“Technology in civilisations in Europe may not fit in Battambang (in Cambodia) or Chonburi,” said Dr Passakon, who is also senior executive vice-president of Thailand’s Digital Economy Promotion Agency.

Dr Balakrishnan said the ASCN’s framework and city-specific action plans are nearly finalised.

For instance, Banyuwangi in Indonesia has proposed a “smart kampung” that aims to improve access to public services for villagers and encourage them to sell their products on digital online markets.

The final framework is expected to be adopted by Asean leaders at the 33rd Asean Summit in November.

Sunday’s meeting – which took place at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre, held alongside the World Cities Summit – was co-organised by Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Centre for Liveable Cities, in partnership with Temasek Foundation Connects.

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Australian winter brings cold weather to parts of Indonesia

Arya Dipa The Jakarta Post 8 Jul 18;

Several areas in tropical Indonesia have experienced an unusual temperature drop, a natural phenomena that occurs at the peak of the dry season during winter in neighboring Australia, a government agency has said.

The Meteorology, Geophysics and Climatology Agency (BMKG) said in a statement on Friday that it recorded the lowest temperature of the year in Ruteng, East Nusa Tenggara, at 12 degree Celsius on July 4. Low temperatures were also recorded in the mountainous areas of Wamena in Papua and Tretes in Pasuruan, East Java, the agency said.

The agency's meteorology deputy, Mulyono R. Prabowo, said a movement of air mass from Australia to Indonesia brought dry, cold wind to the archipelago.

Colder temperatures were also recorded in Bandung, West Java, over the past few days, with lows on Friday.

Ary Syahril Ramadhan, 33, said he felt the air was colder on Friday night when he went out to watch a World Cup match with his friends. He said he felt hungrier throughout the night and took a shower late in the morning to avoid colder water.

Bandung’s general temperature is typically hovering at 20 degrees Celsius, but on Saturday, the BMKG recorded a temperature of 16.7 degrees.

An officer of the BMKG's Bandung branch, Toni Agus Wijaya, said Saturday that the temperature was indeed colder than usual, as drops in temperature usually happened only from dusk to early morning, with the warmest temperatures recorded at noon, when there are fewer clouds in the sky, Toni said.

He suggested that people stay fit by eating fruits and vegetables to weather the cold and dry air.

Over the last 40 years, Toni said, the lowest recorded temperature in Bandung was 11.2 degrees Celsius in August 1987, while the hottest was 36 degrees in April 2011. (evi)

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57 dead as Japan scrambles to rescue flood victims

AFP 8 Jul 18;

The death toll from record rains that have devastated parts of Japan rose Sunday to at least 57, officials said, as rescue workers and troops struggled in the mud and water to save lives.

Local media put the toll at 67, with dozens more people missing and the number of fatalities expected to rise.

Earlier Sunday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned of a "race against time" to rescue flood victims as there were still many people whose safety has yet to be confirmed.

The torrential downpours have caused flash flooding and landslides across central and western parts of the country, prompting evacuation orders for more than two million people.

The rain has completely blanketed some villages, forcing desperate residents to take shelter on their rooftops with flood water swirling below as they wait for rescue.

The meteorological agency issued its highest level alert for two new regions on Sunday, before lifting them after rains began subsiding later on the day.

- Roads turned into rivers -

In the town of Mihara, in the south of the Hiroshima region, a let-up in rain laid bare the devastation wrought by the downpours.

Roads were transformed into muddy flowing rivers, with dirt piled up on either side as flood water gushed around the wheels of stranded cars.

"The area became an ocean," said 82-year-old Nobue Kakumoto, a long-time resident.

"I'm worried because I have no idea how long it will stay like this."

Several dozen residents descended into the village to inspect the damage after spending the night in a tiny shelter on higher ground.

Masanori Hiramoto, a 68-year-old farmer, didn't bother observing the Japanese custom of removing his shoes when he entered his ravaged home, the woven tatami mat floors carpeted with mud.

"I don't even know where to start cleaning. I don't know what is where," he told AFP.

Elsewhere, work crews tried to clear multiple small landslides that coated roads, rendering them virtually impassable.

"We are carrying out rescue operations around the clock," Yoshihide Fujitani, a disaster management official in Hiroshima prefecture, told AFP.

"We are also looking after evacuees and restoring lifeline infrastructure like water and gas," he added.

"We are doing our best."

In western Okayama prefecture, rescue operations were underway to evacuate several hundred people including children and the elderly from a hospital, some by helicopter.

Those in the building became trapped when a nearby river burst its banks and flooded the area, and a nurse inside told local media there was no power or water, and food was running short.

"Around 1,000 people were seeking rescue by Sunday morning, but we don't yet have a complete picture of the disaster, which is enormous," Mutsunari Imawaka, a spokesman for the prefecture's disaster management office, told AFP.

"We are working hard to rescue them as quickly as possible. Time is running out. "

- Homes washed away -

Over 50,000 rescue workers, police and military personnel have been mobilised to respond to the disaster, which has left entire villages submerged by flooding, with just the top of traffic lights visible above the rising waters.

"I was in a car and massive floods of water gushed towards me from the front and back and then engulfed the road. I was just able to escape, but I was terrified," 62-year-old Yuzo Hori told the Mainichi Shimbun daily in Hiroshima on Saturday.

Though the rains began last week when a typhoon made landfall, the worst downpours hit from Thursday, when a construction worker was swept away by floodwaters in western Japan.

The toll has risen steadily since then, and the conditions have made rescue operations difficult, with some desperate citizens taking to Twitter to call for help.

The floods have halted production at plants across the affected region, with reports of electricity, water and mobile phone network outages.

The disaster is the deadliest rain-related crisis in Japan since 2014, when at least 74 people were killed in landslides caused by torrential downpours in the Hiroshima region.

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