Best of our wild blogs: 24 Mar 13

Butterfly Bubbles
from Butterflies of Singapore

Weekend gardening @ Tampines Eco Park
from The Green Volunteers

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Singapore dialogues 'have influenced policymaking'

Minister says public engagement exercise prompted initiatives unveiled in Budget
Rachel Chang Straits Times 24 Mar 13;

To those who dismiss the Our Singapore Conversation (OSC) exercise as a wayang, a talkshop or a sideshow, the minister guiding it, Mr Heng Swee Keat, points to the recently passed Budget as evidence that it is already having an impact on policymaking.

The mass public engagement exercise through citizen dialogues has been under way for five months and has already changed the way policies are being shaped and prompted a slew of initiatives unveiled in the 2013 Budget, said Mr Heng.

From a wage credit scheme to boost pay to the introduction of government-run kindergartens, these were linked by the goal of meeting common aspirations that have emerged from the exercise.

The dialogues have provided no less than a new philosophical underpinning for cross-government efforts, he said.

For example, one of the 12 common aspirations to emerge from the sessions - termed "Citizens' Perspectives" - is to have a society that takes care of its disadvantaged.

It is this goal that links recent policy directions across ministries, "whether it's in education where I spoke about levelling up, or in the specific assistance schemes that the Ministry of Social and Family Development will put up, or in the way that the Ministry of Manpower reviews this wage credit scheme", he said.

His interview with The Sunday Times ranged from the political and social changes emerging from the OSC exercise to how communication of the controversial Population White Paper stacked up - poorly, he freely admitted.

But he was clearly proud of its efforts so far.

The well-received Budget 2013 is the biggest example of how the many conversations so far - with the Government listening in - have already "permeated policymaking".

"There's absolutely no reason to be cynical," he said. "It has shaped the drift of policy and provided a backdrop to the changes we are seeing."

He believes that the format of the exercise - bringing together small groups of people of different backgrounds to thrash out national issues - should be followed for all complex government decisions, except those where speed and confidentiality are necessary.

This style of engagement, as opposed to the traditional practice of mere consultation, has two advantages, he said.

The first is its open-endedness, which allows for a free airing of diverse views. The second is that it puts groups of Singaporeans with differing, and sometimes contradictory, perspectives squarely face to face.

While this may not change their minds, it can help them appreciate other problems, other world views, and the trade-offs among them, he said.

In fact, it would have been useful if the consultation process for the recent Population White Paper, published in January to a firestorm, had dovetailed with the OSC exercise, he said.

He was responding to the view, most recently expressed by PAP MP Denise Phua after the Budget debate, that the White Paper debacle lost the Government goodwill that the national conversation was generating.

Mr Heng said that when he and his team began planning the citizen dialogues last August, after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he wanted Singaporeans to "ask ourselves some fundamental questions", consultation for the White Paper was already six months along.

A decision was made not to combine the two exercises.

Asked how the White Paper's communication could have been better-handled, he said that where things went wrong was the focus on the population projection of 6.9million in 2030.

"I would say that if we had discussed it in terms of what are the fundamental issues about the Singaporean identity, the size of the Singapore core, should we plan infrastructure ahead of demand, how do we restructure the economy to cope with an ageing population, we would have been more focused on the critical issues."

In an OSC dialogue, such issues "come bottom up", he said.

Freelance photographer Shawn Byron Danker, 35, who has attended two sessions, agreed. "The White Paper gave the OSC a black eye," he said. "The OSC was supposed to be about listening, responding, but the White Paper felt like it was bulldozing. If they did it through the OSC, even test-driving the numbers in the small groups, it might not have got such a backlash."

But Mr Heng is reluctant to dwell on questions about how the OSC exercise can regain the ground lost by the Population White Paper, or if the PAP's recent defeat in the Punggol East by-election shows that it faces an uphill battle in stemming a rising anti-government tide.

Rather, he emphasised that the exercise seeks more to bring Singaporeans together, than to bring Singaporeans to the Government.

"It's really not about a better consultation process, but really it is about Singaporeans being able to come together to understand each other," he said.

He worries that as Singapore society matures and viewpoints diversify, the tendency for polarisation grows.

"In some countries, the idea of having people come together to sit at a table to discuss their opposing views is almost impossible," he said. What he hopes the OSC can kick-start is a habit in the population of being able to talk about divisive issues and find a compromise, or agree to disagree.

He is particularly proud of ground-up conversations that are not centrally organised by the OSC, but by other bodies ranging from accounting firms to voluntary welfare organisations.

The Salvation Army held a session last month with those its social services arm helps, such as teenagers from children's homes and families of prison inmates.

The issues these participants brought up - such as having more time to interact with their parents or spouses in jail, or where they would go after they grew too old to stay in a home - were certainly not run-of-the-mill concerns.

It was also the first time that many of them had been asked "What kind of Singapore do you want to see?" said Ms Linda Au Yong, its Singapore director of social and community services.

As for what might come out of the session, she said: "I don't think they left thinking, 'Oh, there will be a solution for us'. They left thinking, 'I have been heard'."

But for other Singaporeans, what has been said in the OSC exercise so far seems to have a familiar ring.

The "citizens' perspectives" - from a society with a sense of belonging, to one with a more fulfilling pace of life - strike some as stating the obvious.

Financial controller Larry Medina, 47, felt most people at his session, attended by about 50, dwelt on the same topics that have been flagged constantly online.

"But it's easy to dismiss the views on the Internet, and they often descend into negativity or criticism," he said.

"I think that the Government is more accepting of views through the OSC and responsive to it because it's their project. I'm sort of amazed at the number of new initiatives that have been rolled out."

Mr Danker said the reaction he heard from some civil society activists when invited to the OSC was: "Why must we go and talk to them?" But to him, the answer is simply "because the Government has asked".

"They've reached out. I won't turn around and slap their hand aside," he said.

Mr Heng is heartened by such views, despite the scepticism and indifference that the exercise faces from various quarters, most notably online.

"I'm encouraged by those who came being cynical and left feeling good. I'm encouraged by those who came wanting to talk about their own issue and left saying, 'I learnt something about other people's perspectives that I wouldn't otherwise have known'."

He is confident that the number of converts will only grow.

"There is a Chinese saying, 'you know the value of a horse over a long journey'. This is a long learning journey, and what we need to do is keep to the sincerity and authenticity of the process.

"If we just keep doing that, then eventually I think people will see that this is a genuine, sincere effort and this is really about the future of Singapore."

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Why waste so much if we love food?

Tom Benner Straits Times 24 Mar 13;

Singaporeans tossed out some 675 million kilos of food in 2011, according to the National Environment Agency, a vast amount that exposes the casual attitudes and habits of living in a food paradise and land of plenty.

This may seem surprising for Singapore, a small island that imports most of what is consumed. Singaporeans are second to none in their love of food, yet one routinely sees unfinished plates getting scraped into rubbish bins, from hawker centres to high-end restaurants and catered affairs.

It is not just a Singapore problem; it is a part of a global problem of growing proportions.

Food loss and food waste occur at alarming rates - about one-third of all the food produced for human consumption, some 1.3 billion tonnes of food worth around US$1 trillion (S$1.25 trillion) - is lost or wasted each year. At the same time, world food demand grows; about one billion people are undernourished globally.

Food loss typically happens in the way food is harvested, transported, processed and stored. One example: Staggering amounts of rice are lost to substandard farm storage facilities vulnerable to pest infestation and moisture.

Food waste typically happens at the retail and consumer end. Fruit and vegetables that don't meet overly strict cosmetic standards - so-called "funny fruit" or "ugly produce" - are rejected by major supermarkets and thrown away. Household refrigerators are stuffed with forgotten, perishable groceries. Many people confuse "best-before" and "use-by" date stamps on food products. Restaurant meals and banquet fare go unfinished or untouched.

It is an economic issue, an environmental issue and a moral issue.

Food waste and loss drive up food prices and squander resources including water, energy, labour and land. Discarded food and packaging strain our disposal processes and end up in landfills, which in turn contribute to greenhouse gases and global warming, or are incinerated. The latter is what happens in Singapore, and that is hardly compatible with its green aspirations. As the planet's human population looks to grow from seven billion to nine billion by 2050, food waste and loss threaten our sustainability.

It matters in global terms and it matters in pocketbook terms: Food waste is an unnecessary drain on household budgets.

A global United Nations campaign seeks to make changes in food production and consumption, from the way food is grown, transported, processed and stored to the way it is sold and consumed. The campaign, Think.Eat.Save, with its clever slogan, "Reduce your foodprint", is organised by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Researchers at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) issued a report last year on food waste in South-east Asia, calling for changes in the food supply chain from "farm to bowl". They warned that attitudes among retailers, the hospitality sector, and consumers in cities such as Singapore and Hong Kong are increasingly crucial to address.

Four final-year NTU students recently took up the cause, promoting catchy mantras designed to raise awareness among consumers. One of their mantras, "Don't shy shy", encourages restaurant diners not to be shy about asking for unfinished food to be wrapped up. Other mantras include: "Are you an S/M/L?", which encourages diners to order the right portion sizes, "Be original", which asks diners to customise orders by leaving out ingredients they won't eat, and "Appreciate the little things in life", which encourages diners not to overlook side dishes.

A handful of food and beverage operations agreed to implement the mantras over the months of February and March as tips to consumers to help them prevent food wastage.

Among them is Naked Fish Shoppe owner James Wong, whose restaurants use fish trimmings - "perfectly good food that would normally be thrown out" - in dishes of baked rice, garnished with cheese and seasoning. He also tries to educate consumers by offering children's and adult portion sizes, and the choice to substitute unwanted sides such as french fries.

Such efforts take imagination and initiative but restaurateurs can remember that, in addition to helping the environment, saving food is saving money.

Experts say tax incentives can help to promote donations of usable food, aided by a strengthened food redistribution network to ensure safety standards are met. In land-scarce Singapore, composting is not as environmentally viable as it is in other places, and disincentives that have been tried elsewhere, such as mandatory food waste separation and food waste disposal fees, seem unlikely to be widely accepted.

Consciousness-raising campaigns can help, and young people should be a prime target. Surveys show that Singaporeans aged 20 to 35 years - a demographic that spends a large portion of their disposable income on eating out - have a high tendency to waste food. Young consumers have a lifetime of buying and eating food ahead of them, so getting the word out is key.

Significant losses of food at the production end will require the work of government and industry leaders to increase regional infrastructures and food processing systems. But retailers and consumers, particularly in countries such as Singapore that are rich in food, can take small, conscious steps that collectively shape a more sustainable future.

The writer is a freelance writer based in Singapore.

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Ikea stops providing disposable plastic bags

Customers have to use their own or buy reusable ones from furniture chain
David Ee and Jessica Lim Straits Times 24 Mar 13;

Furniture giant Ikea has decided that it is plastic not-so-fantastic. From yesterday, the Swedish company became the first retailer in Singapore to stop providing disposable plastic bags.

This leaves customers with two choices: either bring their own bag, or buy a reusable one for 60 or 90 cents, depending on the size.

The reusable bags used to cost 90 cents and $1.20, but prices have been cut to placate customers disgruntled with the new move.

But this is nothing new for the furniture chain. Its stores in Britain have had a no-disposable plastic bag policy since 2007. There are also no plastic bags in its stores in America, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Still, is the inconvenience to customers here worth it?

Given Singapore's small size, three billion plastic bags are used every year compared to one trillion around the world. That is 0.003 per cent.

And bags here are incinerated at temperatures of 1,000 deg C, which stops the release of harmful dioxins, said National University of Singapore Associate Professor Ting Yen Peng, a chemical and biomolecular engineer .

But it still adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, leading to global warming, and the bags, which take 1,000 years to disintegrate naturally, pose dangers to marine life when they get into the sea.

Ikea Singapore's sustainability manager, Mr Marcus Tay, told The Sunday Times that the latest decision was made easier after customers reacted positively when the company started charging for bags - five cents for a small one; 10 cents for the large size - in 2007.

"There was minimal resistance... This showed us that Singaporeans are positive about moving towards more sustainable living," he said.

Since charging for disposable plastic bags, Ikea's two stores in Alexandra and Tampines managed to save on 18 million bags, he added.

But Ikea stands alone in its quest to stop Singapore from relying on the ubiquitous disposable plastic bag.

Last year, clothing chain Bossini began charging 10 cents for each bag, one of a handful of retailers here that do not hand them out free.

But supermarket chains The Sunday Times spoke to plan to stick with the status quo. Dairy Farm Singapore, which runs the Giant and Cold Storage chains, said that shoppers still expect to be provided free plastic bags.

An NTUC FairPrice spokesman added that customer habits will take time to change.

But there may be more to banning plastic bags than just helping Singapore to go green.

Said Mr Simon Bell, director of strategy at global brand consulting firm Landor Associates: "A brand with a green cause is often held in higher esteem than a brand without one in today's world. Consumers are... often choosing brands with a strong cause over others, to feel like they are 'doing good' in a way while they shop."

Shoppers here remain divided though.

Said compliance executive Mark Chew, 33: "It's a duty for the shop to provide a bag (free). I don't care if it's plastic or not."

But Mr Desmond Pereira, a 61-year-old warehouse manager who carries a cloth bag with him, feels there is little excuse in not chipping in to help the environment.

"Everybody has bags at home (they can bring). Why is it inconvenient?"

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Singapore's skyline plunges into darkness for "Earth Hour"

Sara Grosse Channel NewsAsia 23 Mar 13;

SINGAPORE: In a massive display to show concern for the environment, it was lights out for Singapore's skyline.

Just after 8pm Saturday, several hotels, businesses and companies switched off their lights for Earth Hour. In all, more than 100 buildings around the city centre took part.

The event aims to unite the world in campaigning against climate change by the simple deed of just turning off the lights for one hour.

Some businesses have also pledged to go "beyond the hour".

For example, Marina Bay Sands has rallied team members to adopt environmental-friendly lifestyle changes.

And away from the city centre, it was also lights out in other parts of Singapore.

In Clementi, common lights at three blocks of flats were switched off for an hour from 8.30pm.

As part of the event, residents in the neighbourhood were also encouraged to turn off their lights at home.

Singapore goes dark for Earth Hour
Dozens of office buildings, hotels and shopping malls turned off non-essential lighting from 8.30pm to 9.30pm for global initiative
Straits Times 24 Mar 13;

Landmarks like the Supertrees at Gardens by the Bay and the Esplanade went dark for an hour last night.

Dozens of office buildings, hotels and shopping malls also turned off non-essential lighting from 8.30pm to 9.30pm to mark Earth Hour - a global initiative by the World Wildlife Fund to support more sustainable living - in Singapore.

Sydney's skyline was among the first in the world to go dark as the event kicked off. Many of the world's iconic attractions, including the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the Bird's Nest in Beijing, and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai took part.

In Japan's north-east, residents lit candles to both show support for the campaign and mourn victims of the 2011 quake-tsunami disaster, organisers said.

At Singapore's Marina Bay floating platform, about 5,000 people gathered from late afternoon and many danced on special energy absorbing pads to generate enough electricity to power an outdoor movie screening.

Acting Minister for Manpower and Senior Minister of State for National Development Tan Chuan- Jin, who spoke at the event, called on all Singaporeans to do their part to save the environment with small, simple acts.

"All these little efforts do count," he said.

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Best of our wild blogs: 23 Mar 13

Through the lens of my camera
from Psychedelic Nature

Site Allocation Exercise for ICCS2013: Round 1 completed!
from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore

二月双溪布洛华语导游 Mandarin guided walk@SBWR, February (XXXVIII) from PurpleMangrove

Brown-throated Sunbird takes nectar from Melaleuca cajuputi
from Bird Ecology Study Group and In-between White-breasted waterhen

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Singapore's next challenge: 'Treating more seawater with less energy'

David Ee Straits Times 23 Mar 12;

EVEN if Singapore realises its quest to supply all of its own water, it faces another challenge: acquiring the energy it takes to produce the water.

That was the point raised by Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan at yesterday's book launch of The Singapore Water Story, which chronicles the country's rise to becoming a world leader in water management.

"Singapore has to realise that, in fact, we have translated a dependence on water to a dependence on energy...as long as you've got energy, you've got water," said the minister at the National University of Singapore's Bukit Timah campus.

The technologies employed in water treatment here today, for example, reverse osmosis, require substantial amounts of energy.

The Minister explained that as the country becomes more water self-sufficient, this "simply substitutes one strategic vulnerability for another".

To meet its energy challenge, Singapore will have rely on the same things that worked in its water story - political resolve, a clear vision, the right pricing, and a commitment to technology.

Today, Singapore produces at least 40 per cent of its own water needs - with three quarters coming from reclaimed Newater, and the rest from treated seawater.

National water agency PUB wants this to double to 80 per cent by 2060.

Reverse osmosis, the most common method to treat seawater here, typically uses up to 4.5 kilowatt hours to produce 1,000 litres of desalinated water.

That is enough energy to power an HDB flat for several hours.

But PUB is seeking to reduce these levels with new technologies. For example, it is working with Keppel Seghers to develop Memstill technology, which uses waste heat to treat seawater. The process can reduce energy use by up to two-thirds.

It is also exploring longer term solutions such as bio-mimicry, which copies the way some plants and animals treat seawater for their survival, using negligible amounts of energy.

By 2060, Singapore's water usage could double to almost 800 million gallons a day, enough to fill more than 1,200 Olympic-size swimming pools each day.

Managing supply of water & rising energy costs a challenge for Singapore
Vimita Mohandas Channel NewsAsia 22 Mar 13;

SINGAPORE: The government says that maintaining a stable supply of water against rising energy costs is a key challenge for Singapore.

This is because Singapore has been turning to technology to convert waste water into potable water - which requires energy.

Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, said this at the launch of the "Singapore Water Story" book on Friday.

The book charts Singapore's success in its water strategies over the last five decades.

It also discusses Singapore's evolving framework to meet current demands on industrial and domestic water uses. Readers will also learn about the implementation of pricing and the mandatory water conservation strategies.

But experts say hurdles remain ahead.

PUB chairman Tan Gee Paw said: "The big challenge would be to ensure sustainability of supply against rising energy costs. The sustainability of the water supply is extremely important to us. Then there's the issue of water security, going into the future, because of climate change and the threat of drought."

Dr Balakrishnan said the success of the Singapore water story is a combination of getting the right formula of politics, economics and technology.

For example, other countries which do not charge for water can learn from Singapore's strategy of charging for water.

"The price that we charge for water at the tap in Singapore...full price is 1,000 times cheaper than the price of water in a bottle," he said.

Experts also said politicians have to be steadfast, like then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, to ensure a success story like Singapore's.

Asit Biswas, founder of Third World Centre for Water Management in Mexico, said: "Every month, when the Singapore River was being cleaned up, he wanted the report on his desk... what's happening, what's the progress, what are the problems. So he was consistently looking at how to make Singapore more water self-sufficient."

Biswas is also a visiting professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School for Public Policy in Singapore.

The book is available at Books Kinokuniya, and a Mandarin version is under way.

- CNA/ir

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S$4m system to monitor Singapore’s coastal waters

New Neptune system will let authorities respond quickly to pollution incidents, track where they originated
Kelly Ng Today Online 23 Mar 13;

SINGAPORE — A new water-monitoring system that allows for real-time monitoring of the waters around Singapore has been launched, so that the authorities can respond more quickly to water pollution incidents and potential pollution hotspots.

With the new system, called Neptune, the National Environment Agency (NEA) will also be able to send out alerts of chemical spills and algae blooms to the public through its mobile application myENV by the end of this year, so that the public would know which spots to avoid for recreational activities like swimming.

In 2008, the NEA found the waters at Pasir Ris beach unsuitable for swimming in, as the bacteria count of enterococcus, which is found in human faeces, was too high. The beach was declared safe for swimming last year.

The NEA said Neptune would allow for earlier alerts and more “timely” responses to such incidents.

“With Neptune, we will have better capabilities to backtrack and see where the pollution originated,” said a spokesperson for the NEA.

The S$4-million system was jointly developed by the NEA and Singapore Delft Water Alliance.

Comprising eight solar-powered buoy-based stations, the final buoy was deployed yesterday at Cyrene, an offshore reef.

Speaking at the deployment, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan called this a “critical” development, given that Singapore is one of the busiest ports in the world.

“We want to maintain a safe, high-quality (maritime) environment ... (Real-time data will) allow us to anticipate problems or the evolution of a problem even as it occurs.

“This is also a symbol of our commitment to make sure that environment data is transparent and available to all stakeholders,” Dr Balakrishnan added.

Each buoy tracks and sends live updates of the ocean conditions to an operational management system located on mainland Singapore for processing.

Parameters measured include pH, algal nutrients and concentration of dissolved oxygen.

They each weigh about 1,000kg and are fitted with Global Positioning Systems and anti-theft alarms.

All eight buoys were deployed over this month. A test will be carried out in the next year for necessary modifications to be made.

Neptune will complement the NEA’s current manual water monitoring programme, in which officers collect water samples from six designated locations and analyse them in laboratories.

New coastal water quality monitoring system launched
Seet Sok Hwee, Tan Qiuyi Channel NewsAsia 22 Mar 13;

SINGAPORE: A new system to monitor the quality of Singapore's coastal waters was launched on Friday morning, in conjunction with World Water Day.

Eight stations which monitor the quality of Singapore's coastal waters continuously have been deployed in the Straits of Johor and the Straits of Singapore. The system is named Neptune.

Each station is about four metres high and weighs about 1,000 kilogrammes. The stations run on solar power.

Vivian Balakrishnan, minister for environment and water resources, said: "It's the first in the world, where we're not just monitoring a bay or a pond, but islandwide. They'll provide us real-time data which will allow us to keep very close tabs on any emerging pollutants, or any other changes in the seas and waters around us, as well as to keep track of any land-based pollutants which might spill over into the sea.

"This is a significant development for NEA (National Environment Agency) and for Singapore. It's also a symbol of our commitment to make sure that environmental data is transparent, is made available to all stakeholders. We will do our best to make sure everyone plays their part to protect our seas and the waters and the environment."

The system cost the NEA some S$4 million.

- CNA/xq

Buoy oh buoy, there's an oil spill coming in
Grace Chua Straits Times 23 Mar 13;


One of the eight buoys being deployed off Cyrene Reef, near Jurong Island. Each buoy acts as its own chemistry lab, testing coastal waters for pollutants and sending continuous real-time updates wirelessly to the National Environment Agency. -- ST PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA

SHOULD an oil spill occur off Singapore, the public can now get an earlier warning on when and where it will first hit.

All thanks to a network of eight specially outfitted buoys along the coastline, the last of which was installed yesterday.

It is part of a $4 million ocean-monitoring system called Neptune, named after the Roman god of the sea.

Each buoy acts as its own chemistry lab, testing coastal waters for pollutants and sending continuous real-time updates wirelessly to the National Environment Agency (NEA).

The data is integrated into a computer model, developed in collaboration with the Singapore-Delft Water Alliance, that simulates how tides and currents flow and shift with the weather.

This gives the NEA early warnings of oil and chemical spills, allowing it to trace the source of pollutants. It will also help the agency predict the impact of future developments on water quality.

And by about the end of this year, the public will be able to use some of that data, by checking NEA's MyENV mobile app, to see what the water quality is like at the beach.

The coastal necklace of buoys will complement a more traditional existing method: NEA officers going out on a boat to take weekly or monthly water samples.

The system will be fine-tuned for a year and be fully operational by April next year, and more buoys could be added if they are needed.

Over the past two weeks, the 4m-tall, 1-tonne buoys had been deployed one by one from Changi to Tuas.

As the sun came up yesterday morning, the final buoy was anchored off Cyrene Reef near Jurong Island.

Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, who viewed the launch, said the system will help in crisis management.

"Let's take the example of an oil spill," he explained. "We want to be able to predict how extensive it will be, where it will make landfall, the deployment of our resources to do the cleanup. All that will depend on the fact that we've got realtime data to guide us..."

In May 2010, an oil spill occurred off Changi East, and agencies had to rely on satellite images that were often obscured by clouds to work out where the spill was headed.

Added NEA chief executive Andrew Tan: "What you cannot monitor, what you cannot track - you cannot deal with."

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Excavation works for new MRT line caused Woodlands sinkhole

Jermyn Chow Straits Times 23 Mar 13;

IT WAS excavation works for the Downtown Line 2 that caused last Saturday's massive sinkhole on Woodlands Road. The construction destabilised the soil, which ruptured an underground water pipe.

The soil movement and pipe's rupture then weakened the ground under the road, causing the sinkhole to open up.

That is according to the Land Transport Authority (LTA), which has concluded its investigation into the cause of the incident.

The sinkhole, which was as wide as one of the road's lanes, appeared near West View Primary School, next to where construction work for Downtown Line 2 is being carried out.

It is the second one that has been reported near a construction site for the new train line, which will run from Bugis to Bukit Panjang.

The first happened last July, when a section of Bukit Timah Road near the Newton flyover, in the direction of the Stevens Road intersection, sank.

Last weekend's cave-in was also the fourth sinkhole to be reported this year. On Jan 30, a sinkhole appeared on Keppel Road.

This was followed by a 2m- wide and 3m-deep hole that appeared on Clementi Road on March 8. Five days after it was filled, it caved in again.

The spate of sinkholes has put the spotlight on the construction projects undertaken by the LTA, as it continues to dig underground to build more rail lines, such as the 16.6km Downtown Line 2, in which 19 tunnel boring machines are being used.

To prevent the Woodlands stretch from sinking again, an LTA spokesman said it will continue to "actively monitor ground movement and carry out works to stabilise soil conditions".

More people will also be deployed to conduct daily inspection of the road, the spokesman added.

The Straits Times understands that LTA engineers already take two to three years to investigate the soil condition and foundation records of nearby buildings, before deciding on construction methods and how deep to dig tunnels for a rail line.

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Indonesia: Green Group Calls Asia Pulp and Paper Forest Policy ‘Artful Deception’

Rosa O'Hara Jakarta Globe 20 Mar 13;

An environmental think tank has accused paper giant Asia Pulp and Paper of attempting to purposefully deceive the public and its stakeholders with its new conservation policy.

In a report released on Monday titled “APP’s Artful Deception,” Greenomics Indonesia, a group that says it is devoted to empirical-based policy approaches for the conservation of natural resources, claimed that no significant amount of natural forest or forested peatland has been saved through Asia Pulp and Paper’s conservation policy.

APP announced its new forest conservation policy on Feb. 5, calling it “a high-profile forest conservation policy on the part of one of the largest pulp and paper producers in the world.”

But Greenomics Indonesia claimed that the deliberate framing of APP’s report as an attempt to conserve natural forest and forested peatlands was both inaccurate and misleading.

The policy institute claimed that APP purposefully delayed committing to a new conservation policy until its current projects that involve the clearance of natural forest and forested peatland had been completed.

APP finished most its projects prior to Jan. 31, the deadline for the moratorium on the clearing of natural forest and forested peatland under its new policy.

Furthermore, though APP announced a planned suspension of natural forest clearance in Indonesia last year, “the actual extent of the natural forest to be covered by the suspension ... was very surprising,” the report said.

“In fact, it was revealed that almost no natural forest or conflict-free areas were involved. In concrete terms, the area of natural forest that would benefit from the moratorium only amounted to some 200 hectares out of more than 1.15 million hectares included within the relevant concessions.”

The report added that any areas of forest within APP pulpwood plantations that remained intact were not due to the new conservation policy.

In the case of Riau Indo Agropalma’s pulpwood plantation concession, almost all of the area was cleared before the deadline, with only small remnants of forest remaining.

“It would be disingenuous to claim these as being the results of the new APP forest conservation policy,” Greenomics Indonesia said.

These areas remain untouched due to previously existing protection zones, occupation by local communities or designation for crop production, lack of road access, or because they are areas that APP has attempted to clear but with no success, the report noted.

“[RIA] is clearing blocks of forested peatland located in living crop block, which are intended for partnership ventures with local communities,” Greenomics Indonesia said.

Prior to report’s release, APP explained its collaborative efforts to conserve natural forests.

“To help bring positive change on the ground, we are working closely in both Indonesia and China with The Forest Trust, which is providing advice, guidance, capacity-building and monitoring on issues around high-conservation-value forests, high-carbon-stock forests, peatland clearance, community conflict and other operational issues affecting environmental and social performance,” APP told environment news website mongabay.com recently. “We will continue to keep stakeholders and the wider NGO community updated on our progress and welcome further input”

APP was previously accused of unethical behavior by Greenpeace in 2010.

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Indonesia: Mangroves in S. Sulawesi face uncertain future

Andi Hajramurni Jakarta Post 22 Mar 13;

South Sulawesi is facing massive mangrove forest destruction as over the past 30 years deforestation and pollution have taken their toll and damaged almost 90 percent of the total original areas.

The Mangrove Action Project (MAP) Indonesia recorded that the damage had reached 89 percent, citing that the worst damage took place in the 1980s.

The deforestation rate of mangrove forests has reached 2.2 percent annually. Currently, the province only has around 22,353 hectares of mangrove forests.

“Before 1980, South Sulawesi had 214,000 of mangrove forest hectares by 1991 only 23,000 hectares remained,” said MAP Indonesia project director Ratnawati Fadillah during a seminar on mangrove rehabilitation and aquaculture development in Makassar.

According to Makassar’s Hassanuddin University’s Forestry School dean Baharuddin Nurkin, mangrove forest destruction in South Sulawesi had been affected by several factors, with the main factor being forest conversion into fish farms, around 70 percent, followed by housing and logging for charcoal as well as for the paper and pulp industries.

The conversion of mangrove forests into fish farms was as a result of a government policy in the early 1980s that instructed local fisheries and maritime affairs offices to carry out intensification of shrimp cultivation, which was then a major export commodity and earned the state a huge amount of money.

However, the policy had not been followed up by good planning, so much so it led to a surplus of shrimp and around 30 percent of the 70 percent of mangrove forests, which had been converted into shrimp farms, were abandoned because of the huge production costs and low profits.

The mangrove forest in Tanakeke Island, Takalar regency, South Sulawesi, in the early 1980s, was 1,770 hectares and after conversion, for idle and failed fish farms, only 500 hectares remain.

Baharuddin said in the 1970s, more than 30 species of mangrove trees grew along the Rongkong River banks in North Luwu. According to him, the worst mangrove forest destruction took place in North Luwu, East Luwu, Wajo and Takalar regencies and Makassar municipality.

A mangrove expert from Hasanuddin University’s Marine Science School, Amran Saru, said that the community suffered the most from mangrove destruction, especially the fishing and coastal communities, because they were the ones who shouldered the brunt of the impact.

Mangrove destruction leads to coastal erosion and the destruction of spawning places for a number of organisms and marine biota, including fish, shrimp, crabs and shellfish. Other impacts include seawater intrusion, which pollutes local wells with salty water.

Amran claimed that restoration and reforestation efforts had been carried out but could not compete with the pace of destruction. The success rate of mangrove forest restoration in South Sulawesi is only 26 percent annually, which is higher figure than the national rate of only 10 percent.

He added that the government must issue mangrove forest utilization and aquaculture management regulations and carry out extensive restoration and reforestation programs in order to save the mangrove forests.

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WWF exposes seven sins of dam building

WWF 22 Mar 13;

Gland/Berlin - On World Water Day, WWF criticizes dam projects worldwide that continue to violate fundamental sustainability criteria.

In the WWF report, “Seven Sins of Dam Building,” numerous dam projects under construction or planned are given a failing review by the conservation organization. Aside from the internationally controversial Belo Monte (Brazil) and Xayaburi (Laos) dams, European projects, such as in Austria and Turkey, are also on the list..

The ‘seven sins’ outlined in the report include issues with dam location, neglecting biodiversity, environmental flows, social and economic factors, and risk analysis. WWF also notes that dam decisions often blindly follow “a bias to build” without considering better, cheaper, and less damaging alternatives.

“Properly planned, built, and operated dams can contribute to food and energy security. Unfortunately, short-term interests are too often the focus of decision-making,” says Dr. Jian-hua Meng, Water Security Specialist for WWF.

“In order to guarantee acceptable levels of social and environmental sustainability, dam installations and operations should be stringently checked against sustainability criteria as formulated under the World Commission on Dams or the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol. If necessary, insufficiently performing projects must be modified or halted,” added Meng.

No sustainable outcomes can be expected when dam proponents rely on superior financial strength and political connections rather than on dialogue, transparency, and reason, says WWF.

Additionally, some governments lack the capacity or independence to protect public interests.

Successful and overall long-term beneficial dam projects need more than just the legal regulator's approval, according to the report.

“For large-scale projects, operators must also obtain the ‘social license to operate’. Acceptance of the project by the population is fundamental to sustainable management,” says Meng. “Negative effects, such as relocation, destruction of cultural sites, or the collapse of local fisheries are still too often dismissed as somebody else’s problem.”

Scientific evidence and risk assessments too frequently lose out to one-sided political or economic agendas, according to the report.

Subsequently, dams are still planned and built in ecologically high value areas and biodiversity loss is still too often not accounted for. Serious impacts, caused by a change in the natural water flow dynamics or the disappearance of wetlands, are still not given consideration.

Moreover, the size of a dam is not necessarily a deciding factor. Though numerous mega-projects can be found in the report’s case studies, the cumulative impact of many small hydro projects, like for instance in Romania, cannot be underestimated.

The problems are not limited to developing and emerging countries. G7 companies and engineers continue to not only push projects forward in emerging markets that are unacceptable by global standards, but also in the heart of the EU and North America, reproaches WWF.

For example, heavy ecological deterioration looms for three alpine valleys in the Ötztal Alps in Austria, if the extension of the Kaunertal hydroelectric power plants is implemented with the current plans, the report cites.

“WWF reviewed nine dams and we found that many projects commit not just one, but many grave sins of dam building. However, these errors are avoidable. Lack of capacity, economic pressure, or specific regional circumstances can no longer be presented as excuses,” Meng stated.

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