Remembering Bukit Brown
from Rojak Librarian
Life History of the Banded Lineblue
from Butterflies of Singapore
Baya weavers feeding on grass seeds
from Bird Ecology Study Group
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Best of our wild blogs: 19 Jan 13
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Singapore could have 7m people by 2030
Current trends suggest a 32% jump in population, says DBS Vickers
Straits Times 19 Jan 13;
SINGAPORE'S population could hit seven million in about 20 years - up from five million now - if current growth trends continue, a research house says.
DBS Vickers said yesterday that the population is growing faster than it had earlier anticipated.
It said current trends suggest a jump of 32 per cent by 2030, from the current 5.3 million.
DBS Vickers, which specialises in equity research, made these forecasts in a report that gave stock picks on the listing companies likely to benefit most from a much larger population size.
Singapore's population grew by 2.4 per cent a year between 2009 and 2012, faster than the 1.5 per cent growth DBS Vickers had projected back in 2009.
The strong rate of growth was all the more surprising given that the Republic went through a recession in 2009, it said.
"In the previous dot.com/Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) downturn, Singapore saw negative non-resident growth for two years in a row, in 2002 and 2003," it noted.
DBS Vickers said it is also expecting the Government to raise its population planning parameters from the previous 6.5 million to seven million as well, when a Population White Paper is released later this month.
"There will likely be no mention of timeframe, but in our base scenario, we are projecting it to reach seven million by 2030, implying average growth of 1.5 per cent per annum."
DBS Vickers also expects the White Paper to focus substantially on falling birth rates and the ageing population.
The topic of Singapore's rising population has been a hot issue in recent years, with calls made by several sectors of society for the Government to moderate the flow of people to the Republic.
In turn, the Government has committed to ramping up a range of infrastructure projects, including public housing and transport.
Yesterday, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan said there will be as many as 200,000 new homes by 2016.
On Thursday, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said the Government intends to double the rail network by 2030.
But while these projects could signal that the Government is preparing for a larger population, Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Chua Hak Bin did not think those moves mean it is preparing to raise its planning parameters.
"I think the Government was caught flat-footed before when the population surged in the past five years," he said. "So they are now simply preparing for a scenario where Singapore could see that kind of size."
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Shawn Lum on Pasir Ris woodland
Keep or clear? It's not so clear-cut
Straits Times Forum 19 Jan 13;
THERE have been a number of resident-based efforts to save patches of woodland in the past few months. The latest ("Fight to save forest patch hots up"; Jan 9) was the topic of Dr Wee Yeow Chin's letter ("Not all green patches worth preserving"; Jan 11).
An interesting and important point was raised - what constitutes a wild area worth saving, given the trade-offs between conservation, ecosystem services, allocated uses of land and economic development, among other factors?
Biodiversity value runs the spectrum from a pristine rainforest to a species-poor grassland. Given such extremes, it is easy to make a case for keeping the former but not the latter.
If, however, a nature area lies somewhere in the middle of the biodiversity spectrum, the case for clearing or keeping is not as straightforward. For example, if an internationally threatened migratory bird species stops there, clearing a woodland patch might have global repercussions for that species.
There is also the future biodiversity potential of an area. Many of our richest biodiversity sites today were once spent agricultural lands that nature reclaimed and gradually enriched, becoming havens for wildlife many decades later.
Small patches of nature may serve some purposes - noise mitigation, reducing the localised "heat island" effect, accumulating biomass, reducing run-off and more - far better than manicured parks.
Most importantly, there is a personal benefit - aesthetic, psychological, emotional or even spiritual - for people who live near tiny pockets of nature.
Such areas might not interest a biodiversity specialist, but for the residents, who are the ultimate stakeholders in a neighbourhood, these areas may be priceless and provide meaning to their lives, ground them in a community, and provide a platform for inter-generational and cross-cultural engagement.
It is an encouraging sign that residents are increasingly speaking up for what is important to them.
Finally, wide-eyed innocents may later turn out to have been visionaries. Twenty years ago, my predecessors at the Nature Society were criticised by some for proposing that naturally formed wetlands be incorporated into future parks in the Marina Bay district.
Nature areas on prime reclaimed land may have seemed preposterous then, but today, those wildlife-rich areas in the district that we suggested retaining are the site of a green attraction that incorporates newly constructed wetlands - the Gardens by the Bay.
Shawn Lum
President, Nature Society (Singapore)
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Join hands to handle disasters: Asean chief
Zubaidah Nazeer Straits Times 19 Jan 13;
JAKARTA - The severe flooding in Jakarta shows the need for Asean nations to work together to protect the environment and prepare for such disasters, especially in the face of climate change, says the group's new Secretary-General, Mr Le Luong Minh.
"How to overcome the effects of climate change and the issue of environmental protection are always high on the Asean agenda," he said, in an interview at his office in the Asean Secretariat in Jakarta yesterday, noting that many Asean countries are prone to climate-change effects of extreme weather.
The Jakarta disaster comes just 10 days after the Vietnamese diplomat took over as Asean Secretary-General from Dr Surin Pitsuwan, a former foreign minister of Thailand.
Fortunately for Mr Minh, the secretariat is not in a flooded area of the capital. Therefore, he has been able to proceed with his busy schedule of engagements and meetings with diplomats, business leaders and state visitors.
But he said the flooding was evidence of the effect of extreme weather patterns and noted that Asean countries are vulnerable to them.
Parts of Vietnam's own coastline face erosion and some of its regions are below sea level and, thus, also in danger.
"My own country is one of four countries with the highest (risk) of falling victim to rising sea levels," Mr Minh said, adding that at least a quarter of its 90 million population could be affected, if not displaced.
Other Asean nations have also experienced natural calamities recently.
Last month, a tropical storm killed more than 1,000 people in the southern Philippines.
Monsoon rains have also drenched areas along Malaysia's west coast.
Asean's Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management, or AHA Centre, has been set up to coordinate information on regional disasters and provide help.
Last Saturday, it saw the official launch of a state-of-the-art disaster response and monitoring system.
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Attacks on humans prompt Nepal to cap wildlife growth
Navin Singh Khadka BBC News 18 Jan 13;
Officials in Nepal have said they will now have to put a cap on the growth of wildlife including endangered species like tigers and rhinos.
They say it is a result of significant increase in loss of human lives from attacks by wild animals.
The problem is especially acute in buffer zones between human settlements and national parks.
In recent years, Nepal has developed a successful protection programme for many endangered species.
The Chitwan National Park in southern Nepal has more than 500 rhinos, up from half that figure few years ago, and more than 125 tigers.
The Bardiya National Park in the west now has more than 80 elephants, almost 10 times as many as there were in the 1990s.
In the Himalayas, the numbers of endangered species like snow leopards and red pandas have been growing as well.
And the country has nearly 24% of its land area as protected areas, including national parks, conservation areas and wildlife reserves.
With all these achievements in nature conservation, however, Nepal has also witnessed a rising number of human deaths and property losses because of wildlife.
In the last five years, more than 80 people have been killed by wild elephants while 17 of the animals died in retaliatory killings, according to forest ministry officials.
Elephant protest
Last month, local people in Chitwan, southern Nepal, staged a strike and demanded that a rogue elephant be killed after it had taken the lives of three people.
A few months ago, a leopard in western Nepal caused terror as it killed more than a dozen people within a matter of weeks.
In eastern Nepal, herds of wild elephants continue to rampage, demolishing human settlements and raiding crops.
Meanwhile, common leopards are increasingly attacking children and livestock in the hilly region.
Further north, in the trans-Himalayan region, locals continue to complain about snow leopards preying on their livestock.
Although forest ministry officials are yet to compile the latest data on these losses, they do admit that such incidents have gone up remarkably.
"Before, we used to record about 30 human deaths because of wildlife attacks annually but in the past few years the figure appears to have risen significantly," said Forest Ministry spokesman Krishna Acharya who, until recently, headed Nepal's Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation.
He added: "The time has now come for us to determine how many such wildlife species we can have in our protected areas."
WWF's Nepal country director, Anil Manandhar, said the problem had become quite serious.
"This is now something that could become the biggest threat and setback for Nepal's success in wildlife conservation," he explained.
Buffer zones
Wildlife experts say human settlements known as buffer zones around national parks have become flashpoints for human-wildlife encounters.
"The numbers of rhinos and tigers are increasing in the national park and they are moving out in search of food and space. Meanwhile, the increasing human population needs more of the natural resources available, and that competition creates conflict," said Mr Acharya.
Most of Nepal's national parks and protected areas are either in the Himalayan region or in the Tarai area, the southern plain land that border India.
Yet, wildlife-related loss of lives and properties are also increasingly being seen in the mid-hill region, geographically located between the Himalayas and Tarai plain land.
Conservationists point at the growing number of attacks on children and livestock by common leopards because this region has seen huge success in community forestry.
"We have been hearing complaints from farmers that community forests have more wildlife than in some national parks and therefore they are suffering losses of lives and properties," said Yam Bahadur Malla, country director for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Nepal.
He also suggested it was necessary to scientifically demarcate the boundaries of national parks, as some species involved in the attacks were sometimes found outside the existing boundaries.
Forest ministry officials, however, said the chances of expanding existing protected areas were very slim because Nepal had already made huge swathes of land available for nature conservation.
Mr Acharya said the details of plans to limit wildlife growth were yet to be worked out but he added that one of the ideas would be to relocate some of the wildlife species.
"We have listed nine such species that can be trans-located from where there are quite many of them to where there are very few and such species include animals involved in conflicts with humans," he said.
Mr Acharya also hinted that Nepal will now not commit to protect more wildlife than the amount its protected areas could sustain.
"For instance, we have said we will double the number of tigers to 250. But as we cannot expand our protected areas, we will not be able to commit more than that," he said.
"Nor can we add new conservation areas."
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Vietnam Ministry reveals national strategy for environment protection
MONRE shows bad panorama of Vietnam’s natural environment
VietNamNet Bridge 18 Jan 13;
Natural resources have been degrading and getting exhausted, the biodiversity has got degraded, while climate changes have turned unpredictable. These are the main points of the picture about Vietnam’s environment.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MONRE) has announced the approval of the national strategy on the environment protection by 2020 with the vision until 2030.
Land, water, air all get polluted
According to the ministry, though Vietnam spends VND6,590 billion dong from the state budget and $3.2 billion from the ODA capital (official development assistance), very modest achievements have been made in the environment protection, while the number of polluters has been increasing rapidly, thus leading to the higher pollution level in many areas.
The land resource in rural area has degraded due to the abuse of chemical substances used in agriculture production. The total inorganic fertilizer used in agriculture is estimated at 2.5-3 million tons a year, of which 70 percent cannot be absorbed by plants and they are discharged to the environment.
In urban areas, people have suffered from polluted water resources due to the uncontrolled industrial production. Only 60 percent of industrial zones reportedly have waste water treatment systems, while nearly 100 percent of waste water from residential quarter has been discharged directly to the environment, without treatment.
The soil in the northern mountainous areas and Central Highlands has suffered the erosion level of 34-150 tons per hectare per annum. The Mekong Delta is facing the salinization.
The surface water has been degrading and turned polluted. In central provinces and Central Highlands, 50 percent of the stream output has been exploited, while the limit is just 30 percent. All the lakes, canals and ponds in big cities have got polluted, and many of them have turned into the waste water reservoirs.
On the three big river valleys of Nhue – Day, Cau and Dong Nai, the surface water quality monitoring in recent years all showed that the water quality is below the standards.
Especially, Vietnamese now have to live in a polluted atmosphere, especially in big cities like Hanoi and HCM City.
Alarm rung about species extinction
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in 1996, only 25 species in Vietnam were listed as “endangered,” while the figure soared to 47 in 2010. These include the species which are not in high danger in the world, but in high danger in Vietnam.
This has been attributed to the sharp decrease of the natural ecological systems which has led to the disappearance of the areas – the ideal living environments for creatures.
With the forest cover area of up to 40 percent of the total land area, the forest area has increased, but the forest quality has decreased. A report by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) released in September 2012 showed that while the forest area increased by 127,000 hectares over 2010, the natural forest area decreased by 20,000 hectares.
Especially, only 0.57 million hectares of primeval forests has been left, mostly in preventive forests or sanctuaries. Forests of different kinds have been in the danger of being eliminated to give place to hydropower plants.
Mangrove swamps disappearing gradually
The mangrove swamp area has reduced by 50 percent in comparison with 1943 to 160,000 hectares. The sea dyke system has the length of 2,483 kilometers, but 55 percent of the length has not been protected by the preventive forests any more.
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Vietnam and Cambodia hit back at landmark Laos dam
Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Paul Carsten Reuters 18 Jan 13;
(Reuters) - Vietnam urged Laos to halt construction of a $3.5 billion hydropower dam pending further study, environmental activists said on Friday after a meeting of the Mekong River Commission.
The activists said Cambodia, also downriver from the Xayaburi dam, accused Laos during heated discussions on Wednesday and Thursday of failing to consult on the project.
The dam in northern Laos, the first of 11 planned for the lower Mekong river running through Southeast Asia, threatens the livelihood of tens of millions who depend on the river's aquatic resources, activists say.
"Vietnam requested that no further developments on the Mekong mainstream occur until the Mekong mainstream dams study agreed upon at least year's Council Meeting is completed," International Rivers, an NGO devoted to river conservation, said in a statement.
"The Cambodian delegation asserted that Laos had misinterpreted the Mekong Agreement."
Officials from Cambodia and Vietnam were not immediately available for comment.
Ministers from member countries that make up the Mekong River Commission (MRC) overseeing the river's development -- Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand -- met in northern Laos on Wednesday and Thursday.
The MRC is bound by treaty to hold inter-governmental consultations before dams are built. But members have no veto.
"In the absence of an agreement, other countries can disagree if they like but this can't stop Laos," said Jian-hua Meng, a specialist in sustainable hydropower at the World Wildlife Fund.
"The role of the MRC is now being questioned along with the level of investment put in the organization."
TURNING POINT
In December 2011, MRC member states agreed to conduct new environmental impact assessments before construction proceeded, but last August Ch Karnchang PCL, the Thai construction company behind the project, said it had resumed work.
A groundbreaking ceremony in November signaled the formal start of construction, said Meng.
Ch Karnchang's 50 percent-owned subsidiary, Xayaburi Power Co, has received a 29-year concession from the Laotian government to operate the dam's power plant and Thailand is set to buy around 95 percent of the electricity generated.
Milton Osborne of the Lowy Institute, an Australian foreign policy think tank, said Xayaburi marked a turning-point that would enable others to build their own dams, including Cambodia.
He described as a "monstrous disaster" a proposal for a Chinese power company to build a dam at Sambor in northeastern Cambodia, on a tributary of the Mekong.
"It would be so disastrous, blocking one of the main fish migratory systems," he said by telephone.
Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia share the lower stretches of the 4,000-km (2,500-mile) Mekong. Activists say dams could threaten food security in Cambodia and Vietnam.
The river provides up to 80 percent of the animal protein consumed in Cambodia and sediment and changes to river flow threaten the Mekong Delta, which contributes half of Vietnam's agricultural GDP.
Cambodia approved its own hydroelectric dams in November.
A second Cambodian project, the Lower Sesan dam in northern Stung Treng province, is a joint venture between Cambodian, Chinese and Vietnamese companies. Campaigners say it would reduce the fish catch in a country with malnutrition issues.
(Additional reporting by Prak Chan Thul in Phnom Penh; Editing by Alan Raybould and Ron Popeski)
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Best of our wild blogs: 18 Jan 13
Common Kingfisher: Comfort and feeding behaviour
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Sharing about our shores with Shell
from wild shores of singapore
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MRT network size to double by 2030
80% of homes here will be within 10-minute walk of a station by then
Christopher Tan Straits Times 18 Jan 13;
SINGAPORE'S train network is set to double in size over the next 17 years, with two new lines and three extensions announced yesterday.
The slew of new projects means 80 per cent of households will be no more than 10 minutes' walk from a station by 2030, said Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew.
They come on top of half a dozen others that are already in various stages of planning and construction.
The new projects will boost the size of the network to about 360km - the current size is 178km - and increase the proportion of households within a 10-minute walk of a station from the current 57 per cent. They are:
Cross Island Line, a 50km train line running from Changi in the east to Jurong industrial estate in the west.
In between, it will link towns and districts such as West Coast, Clementi, Bukit Timah, Sin Ming, Ang Mo Kio, Hougang and Pasir Ris. From Pasir Ris, it will have an offshoot that goes to Punggol - forming the first rail link between the two northern estates.
Jurong Region Line, a 20km H-shaped network targeted for completion by 2025.
It will link Choa Chu Kang, Tengah, Jurong East, West Coast, Boon Lay and Jurong West to the North-South and East-West lines. It is expected to have a stop at the Nanyang Technological University.
A 4km extension that will join the two southern ends of the orbital Circle Line, making it a complete circle by 2025.
A 2km extension of the North-East Line north of Punggol, to serve the future "new Punggol downtown" by 2030.
A 2km extension to link Downtown Line 3 to the future Eastern Region Line. When it is completed by 2025, commuters will be able to travel from Singapore Expo to Marine Parade in less than 10 minutes.
Planners are also considering building a new station on the North-South Line between Yishun and Sembawang stations to serve future mixed developments there. Speaking during a visit to Downtown Line 1's Chinatown station yesterday, Mr Lui said the denser network will not only give commuters better connectivity but will also create "a more resilient network that can better mitigate disruptions".
This means that if there is an incident on one line, commuters can switch to another fairly easily to continue their journey.
The minister said it will also allow parts of the network to be closed for extended periods for improvement works.
Asked if the timing of his announcement was in any way linked to the Punggol by-election, he said: "No, no, we've been planning to announce these for some time now. In any case, the new lines are not quite at the Punggol East SMC (single-member constituency). They will benefit everybody in Singapore."
Although no details of the cost were available as engineering studies have not started, observers estimate that the cost of the new lines - totalling 78km in length - could come to between $70 billion and $100 billion.
Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport chairman Cedric Foo said: "Some commuters will say that the completion date is not ambitious enough.
"But in adding some 180km of rail, there are many second-order effects that the Government needs to balance against. Some of which are disruptions, more foreign workers, the capacity of contractors and sub-contractors, demand for materials" and so on.
Mr Lui said the expanded network "will have more than the capacity needed to meet the expected increase in public transport ridership in the next two decades".
He added: "On the other hand, our response cannot always be to build more lines... we need to find other options, such as a more aggressive decentralisation strategy so that there is a better geographical balance of jobs and people."
He was referring to a plan spelt out as early as the 1980s to create regional centres such as Tampines and Jurong East to bring jobs closer to where people lived. One benefit is shorter, fewer commutes.
Cross Island Line is most ambitious yet
It could be first in Singapore to have trains with more than six carriages
Christopher Tan Straits Times 18 Jan 13;
SINGAPORE is embarking on its most ambitious MRT project yet: the 50km Cross Island Line (CRL), expected to be ready by 2030.
While it is not the longest line here - that is the 57km East-West Line - it could be the first in Singapore to have trains with more than six carriages.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) would not confirm this, merely saying that the CRL will be "a heavy-load system".
Currently the East-West, North-South and North-East lines have six-car trains while the others have three- or four-car trains. In other countries, eight- and 10-car trains are common.
The CRL will also pass through densely built up areas such as Sin Ming, Ang Mo Kio, Hougang and Clementi.
This will pose engineering challenges and raise the possibility of property acquisitions, thus lifting the overall cost.
Mr Chong Kee Sen, vice-president of the Institution of Engineers, Singapore, said: "It really depends on the exact alignment, but if you're going through densely occupied areas, some acquisition may be unavoidable."
But construction methods might improve in the next few years to facilitate things not feasible now, he added.
The CRL will also cut through the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and Central Catchment Area.
Observers said provisions must be made to minimise the environmental impact of construction.
Mr Rajan Krishnan, chief executive of engineering firm Kok Thong Holdings and former head of rail projects at the LTA, said it is not hard to ensure the plan will be sound environmentally. But he admits that a higher-capacity system and one that passes through dense developments can have cost implications.
"The first thing that struck me was that there are going to be a lot of projects going on between 2016 and 2018.
"That will exert a huge demand on resources and that will have an impact on cost."
He would not hazard a guess as to how much the line would cost, but said it will not be less than the Thomson Line, a four-car system that costs $600 million per km.
Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport chairman Cedric Foo said: "In a small island state, upgrading public transport is a strategic imperative and not a choice.
"Singaporeans should support it by bearing with the short-term inconveniences that come with such an ambitious project."
National University of Singapore's transport economist Anthony Chin added: "As we position ourselves as a liveable city competing for high-value jobs, the implications on land use will be tremendous. And we can't afford to build many more roads."
Commuter benefits will be significant. The line will have a fork that goes from Pasir Ris to Punggol - the first rail link between the two north-eastern towns.
Residents will be able to travel from one to the other in 10 to 15 minutes, compared with a 40-minute bus ride today.
This, according to the LTA, will form the first leg of yet another possible line: a so-called Northshore line to link up to Woodlands.
Punggol resident Noriezah Idris, 39, a logistics worker at Zuellig Pharma in Changi North, said: "It will be much more convenient for me in the future. Currently, I have to take two bus transfers to get to work."
The CRL will have interchanges at all existing radial lines so it will relieve loads on these systems - in particular the North-East and East-West lines.
But National University of Singapore transport researcher Lee Der-Horng said: "It is simply too far away for us to long for since we are talking about 17 years from now, if there is no delay.
"It'd be great if it can be expedited."
New Jurong rail line was mooted a decade ago
Jermyn Chow And Christopher Tan Straits Times 18 Jan 13;
THE new rail line linking up the Jurong area that will be ready by 2025 was mooted more than 10 years ago.
The Jurong Region Line was was actually first announced in 2001 by then Communications and Information Technology Minister Yeo Cheow Tong.
But the light rail system, which would have linked the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to the East-West MRT Line's Boon Lay station and been called the Jurong Region LRT Line, was never built.
Transport observers said that low ridership then did not make an additional rail line in an area that is dotted with factories and prawn ponds feasible.
But today, western Singapore is buzzing with activity, with the new Jurong Gateway set to become a major commercial hub.
So a new 20km rail line will provide better connectivity for commuters who live, study and work within the area, said Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew yesterday.
They include NTU students and workers in Jurong Industrial Estate and Jurong Island.
Commuters can also bypass the Jurong East MRT interchange, which has become a choke point for commuters who have to switch to trains on the East-West Line to get to the city centre.
Mr Lui said the new line "will not only shorten their travel times, but also redistribute ridership" out of Jurong East station.
Better late than never, said Bukit Gombak resident Manoj Kumar, who has to jostle for space in a train every morning at the Jurong East MRT interchange to get to his Raffles Place workplace.
"It should have come earlier... it is madness trying to squeeze with everyone else to get on the trains," said the 42-year-old equity broker.
Jurong GRC MP Ang Wei Neng said he has heard similar complaints from other residents who say the road network and bus services in the area leave much to be desired.
With upcoming launches of new shopping malls, a hotel and offices in the Jurong area, Mr Ang welcomed the latest decision to build the Jurong Region Line.
And although the line will only be ready by 2025, Mr Ang said residents can look forward to more improvements to be made to bus services.
"We have to build in advance, not just for today's requirements," he said.
Singapore to have two new MRT lines by 2030
Hetty Musfirah Channel NewsAsia 17 Jan 13;
SINGAPORE: Singapore will have two new MRT lines, while three existing lines will be extended. These will double the rail network stretch to 360 kilometres, compared with the current 178 kilometres.
By then, eight in 10 households will have a train station within a 10-minute walk, compared with about six in 10 currently.
These plans for the rail network followed a review of the Land Transport Master Plan by the Land Transport Authority (LTA).
Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew announced the new developments when he visited Chinatown Station of the Downtown Line on Thursday.
The new lines are the Cross Island Line (CRL) and Jurong Region Line (JRL).
The CRL will run from Jurong Industrial Estate and pass through areas such as West Coast, Bukit Timah, Ang Mo Kio, Punggol and Pasir Ris before ending in Changi. The 50-kilometre line, which is expected to be completed by 2030, will be connected to all existing lines.
It is expected to relieve the load of the existing East-West and North-East lines and shorten journey times significantly.
Mr Lui said: "The eastern leg of the CRL will also include a segment that extends into the centre of Punggol. Residents in Punggol will be able to take a short cut to Pasir Ris, which is a popular and much demanded travel route, in only 10 to 15 minutes, compared to a 40 minute bus journey that they experience today."
The other new line -- Jurong Region Line -- will be completed in 2025. The 20-kilometre line will pass through areas such as Jurong West, Jurong Industrial District, West Coast, Choa Chu Kang and potential new developments in Tengah.
Those travelling from the North to Jurong, like students of Nanyang Technological University, can skip Jurong East Station on the East-West Line.
The LTA will conduct environmental impact and engineering studies to decide on the final alignment, the number of stations and the type of systems that will run on the new lines.
Separately, three existing lines -- the Circle Line (CCL), Downtown Line (DTL) and North-East Line (NEL) -- will be extended.
The CCL will be four kilometres longer -- to close the link between HarbourFront and Marina Bay stations and save commuters the hassle of making multiple transfers. The extension, which will also pass through Keppel, is expected to be completed by 2025.
The DTL will be two kilometres longer by 2025 -- to run through the East Coast area. It will be connected to the East West Line and the Eastern Region Line, which will be ready by 2020, so that commuters can transfer between the Downtown Line and Eastern Region Line in the east.
As for the NEL, two kilometres will be added by 2030 -- in tandem with new developments in Punggol -- to serve Punggol North, including the new Punggol Downtown.
The LTA is also exploring the possibility of an additional station between Sembawang and Yishun stations on the North-South Line, in anticipation of future developments in the area.
Mr Lui said all these changes promise not just faster and more convenient travel.
He said: "We will also have a more resilient network that can better mitigate disruptions in our MRT system and also allow us to shut down parts of the network for longer durations to carry out improvement works without causing too much inconvenience to commuters."
Mr Lui said the vision for Land Transport in the coming years is to have better connectivity and service to support an inclusive, liveable community.
He said the government will invest heavily to achieve this and provide a much better travel experience for Singaporeans.
He assured Singaporeans will feel a marked difference when new rail lines and new trains come into operation
-CNA/ac/fa
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Does Jakarta Really Have a 5-Year Flood Cycle?
Ronna Nirmala & Lenny Tristia Tambun Jakarta Globe 14 Jan 13;
The claim that Jakarta’s floods follow a five-year cycle has been a persistent one, perpetuated by people ranging from occupants of high public office to bakso sellers plying their trade on the streets of the city.
Major floods in 2002 and 2007 prompted fears that either last year or this one would herald particularly nasty wet seasons, but now an academic at the Netherlands’ Utrecht University has debunked the claim as a myth.
“The probability of flooding occurring each year [in Jakarta] is 20 percent,” post-doctoral student Edwin Husni Sutanudjaja explained. He added that the so-called five-year cycle “is actually a bad interpretation ... of this statistic: flooding does not occur every five years, but every year, with a different quantity.”
Edwin said the city must conduct routine dredging to reduce the sediment of rivers running through Jakarta.
“Dredging needs to be done routinely each year; not just when the sediment is visible [above the water level],” he said.
Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo on Saturday instructed the city’s public works office to conduct dredging along the Kali Muara River in Penjaringan, North Jakarta, to save the local fishing community, which is hit by flooding annually.
Joko said he found many problems associated with the annual floods after visiting the area, and formulated plans to alleviate the problem.
“Starting with the overflow of streets, they should be raised by another 40 centimeters,” Joko said. “The Kali Muara must also be dredged, its sediments reduced so [fishing] boats can dock [in the river].”
Joko also noted problems with the area’s drainage system, which seems to not work during the flood season.
“So there are many problems. These problems are affecting their daily lives and must be solved,” he said. “These are [temporary] solutions, but to overcome the problems [in the long term] there must be a grand design. There must be other efforts.”
Jakarta has been hit with days of heavy rains sweeping across the area. The rain has caused water in some areas to overflow their drainage systems, creating crippling traffic in other parts of the capital.
The Jakarta public works agency also noted that the rain and overflow have damaged roads in more than 6,400 locations covering 2.7 kilometers in length.
The agency’s head of road and bridge maintenance, Maman Suparman, said his team has been collecting data of the severity of the damage the roads sustained including for the so-called “national roads.”
National roads are major streets or highways constructed and maintained by the Ministry of Public Roads.
Maman said that is would be useless to fix the roads during the rainy season.
“If it’s raining the asphalt won’t dry,” he explained. “Or the roads will get holes in them again if vehicles pass over the repaired areas.”
Among those people to previously voice the five-year claim was Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare Agung Laksono, who in December told the Jakarta government to be vigilant of the cycle and take preventive measures.
“We hope the city can act quickly,” he said. “Bad weather and high-intensity rain is part of a five-year cycle and it is predicted that January or February will be marked by continuous heavy rains.”
Floods paralyze Indonesian capital, heavy rains continue
Fergus Jensen and Rieka Rahadiana PlanetArk 18 Jan 13;
Floods paralyze Indonesian capital, heavy rains continue
Heavy monsoon rain triggered severe flooding in large swathes of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Thursday, bringing the city to a halt with many government offices and businesses forced to close because staff could not get to work.
At least 20,000 people were forced from their homes in the capital and weather officials warned the rain could get worse over the next few days.
"Rain will continue to fall in the greater Jakarta area ... the potential for flooding remains," a spokesman for the Meteorology Climatology Meteorology and Geophysics Agency told Reuters. He said rain was expected to remain heavy in mountains above Jakarta, often the source of floodwater.
Four people were reported to have been killed, according to the National Disaster Prevention Agency, which urged residents to stay at home to reduce traffic congestion on blocked roads.
Torrential rain was reported across much of the country, including the main island of Java and heavily agricultural area of southern Sumatra.
However, officials said there had been no reports of any serious damage to key crops such as rice, sugar and palm oil.
An estimated more than 175 mm (7 inches) of rain fell in one part of west Jakarta between 7 a.m. and midday.
"In 30 years of my life here it has never flooded, ever. This is the very first time," said Ninuk, 30, a resident of central Jakarta.
Floods even forced the country's anti-corruption agency to move some of its most prominent prison inmates, including a former deputy head of the central bank, to a notorious women's prison, Pondok Bambu, in east Jakarta, a spokesman said
The flooding will put pressure on the capital's popular new governor, Joko Widodo, who came to office last October with promises to work to fix a huge array of basic infrastructure problems that bedevil the city of about 10 million people.
"The government has to do something to prevent floods ... If it needs to build stronger dykes, then build them," said Syaiful Bakhri, a taxi driver whose car was stuck in the flood.
In the centre of Jakarta, where streets are jammed at the best of times, long lines of idled cars waited for waist-deep water to recede. An inflatable dinghy provided by emergency services ferried people to safety across water dividing the heart of the city.
The city's main airport was open but many roads leading to it were reportedly blocked. Most commuter trains and buses were suspended.
The Jakarta Stock Exchange did open but trading was light.
Flooding was even reported at the presidential palace, forcing the postponement of a meeting between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his visiting Argentine counterpart, Cristina Fernandez.
(Additional reporting by Michael Taylor and Janeman Latul; Writing by Jonathan Thatcher; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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Spare mature tress in Dover Crescent
Straits Times Forum 10 Jan 13;
I LIVE in Dover Crescent. Over the past few days, some mature trees along that road have been felled and saplings planted in their place.
I do not understand the logic of this. For many years, the mature trees have been providing shady relief on sunny days; these young saplings can provide none.
Some residents have stuck notices on the remaining trees, with the plaintive message: "Please do not cut me down."
I hope the authorities will heed this plea.
Also, I have observed that trees that provide good shade in several housing estates have often been over-pruned by chainsaw-wielding workers.
It seems that after nearly 50 years of tree-planting and calling ourselves a garden city, we still have not found a better way of managing and caring for our trees.
Wong Shin Hoe
Dover Crescent trees removed due to decay
Straits Times 17 Jan 13;
WE THANK Mr Wong Shin Hoe for his feedback ("Spare mature trees in Dover Crescent"; last Thursday).
To ensure public safety, we are removing tree species that are storm-vulnerable, and replacing them with hardier ones.
The trees that were removed in Dover Crescent were Andira inermis, which was observed over the years to be a storm-vulnerable species.
We tried to keep those in Dover Crescent for as long as possible, but they recently showed signs of decay and had to be removed.
Before doing so, we planted more than 60 Tembusu Tikus (Pteleocarpa lamponga) trees, which are less prone to damage during storms. Tembusu Tikus is a medium-sized native tree that produces attractive bright yellow flowers.
The mature trees on the other side of Dover Crescent are of a different species. They are less storm-vulnerable and are in good condition. They will continue to provide greenery and shade.
Oh Cheow Sheng
Director, Streetscape
National Parks Board
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