Sunday, November 22, 2009

Country of Scarcity .....S'pore

This is a continuation from my previous post on my visit to PUB's plant in Bedok.

We were told that in land scarce S'pore, we have to 'sacrifice' a large portion of our land to building water catchment so as to provide water for our ever growing population.

If this is so, why are we having so many golf courses in this tiny speck of an island ? I still recall in 1992, our then BG Lee S L said "Let reason prevail....a golf course would have to be built on nature reserve land if there was a need." He was referring to Pierce nature reserve. NGO environmental groups gathered enough support to defer this project.

Let reason prevail indeed - since when is there a demand for golf course which cater to a minute population of Singaporean ?

However, we were not so lucky when it comes to Kranji nature reserve few years later. Kranji nature reserve is turned into a golf course inspite of its rich biodiversity.....sigh !

Then there is the question of population growth. This is insane, sacrificing quality of life for quantity in numbers which tax our water resources.

It could well turn out to be another costly political mistake - the Stop At Two resulted in population decline, now the relax immigration policy could well result in population explosion. Six million over people packed into a country of scarcity - land scarce, water scarce, food resources scarce.....

S'pore may be the Mother of All Hubs, but we are also a Country of Scarcity. We may be rich in human resource, but human resource need many other resources for sustainability. What happens if there is a world wide drought and famine due to global warming ? Even we have the financial muscle, who will be selling water and food to us if they do not have enough for their own population ?

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