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APCEL Report : Singapore Back to : Index : ASEAN Project : Singapore
The Republic of Singapore is a small island state lying at the tip of the Malayan Peninsula at the crossroads of South East Asia. Consisting of the main island of Singapore and some 60 islets, Singapore has a land area of 637 square kilometres and a coastline of 193 kilometres. Singapore features as the smallest country in South East Asia. The city-state is densely populated, with a population of 3,440,693 (July 1997 estimate). Building upon its strategic location, deep harbour and excellent infrastructure, Singapore is a leading commercial and financial centre. The economy is dominated by the manufacturing and service industries, with the main income earners being computer equipment, petroleum products, processed agricultural products and tourism. Singapore serves as a major entreport centre serving the needs of the South East Asian hinterland. Trade is the lifeline of the country, and has brought a high living standard to the city-state with a per capita gross domestic product of US$21,200 (1996 estimate). The port and airport facilities are amongst the busiest and most extensive in the world. Singapore has virtually no natural resources, and the environmental issues which it faces are characteristic of a highly-urbanised city. There are no problems associated with mining, forestry, large-scale agriculture or indigenous peoples. The existing relevant issues pertain to pollution from industrialisation and urbanisation and the protection of nature areas. Pollution was recognised to be a problem since the 1960s, and significant steps have been taken since to alleviate industrial and urban pollution. Singapore today is a relatively clean, ordered and well-planned country, with extremely stringent regulation of industrial pollution. The country’s acute land scarcity and high population density have meant that very few undisturbed natural areas remain. Water is in short supply, and Singapore’s potable water needs are met through importing water from neighbouring Malaysia. Singapore’s environmental challenges include maintaining a pollution-free urban centre, preventing encroachment of the few nature areas which remain and the prevention of marine pollution in its heavily-traversed waters.
Singapore is a republic within the British Commonwealth, and has administrative and legal systems similar to Britain’s. The head of state is the President, who has limited executive powers and is elected by popular vote for six-year terms. Pursuant to the Constitution, the President exercises executive competence over certain fiscal matters and the appointment of key civil servants. The head of government is the Prime Minister, who is the leader of the political party securing the majority of Parliamentary seats in general elections conducted every five years. The Prime Minister is assisted by a Cabinet, whose Ministers are appointed by the President and who are responsible to Parliament. Overall management of the environment lies with the Ministry of Environment (ENV). The ENV was first established in the 1970s as a department within the Prime Minister’s Office before eventually becoming a full-fledged Ministry. It is responsible for providing the infrastructure for waste management, as well as enforcing and administering legislation relating to pollution control and public health. The Pollution Control Department (PCD) within the ENV is in charge of environmental planning and building development control, air and water pollution control and the regulation of hazardous substances and wastes. Due to the government’s strong commitment to pollution control and also to Singapore’s small size, the ENV has been largely successful in implementing its pollution control programmes throughout Singapore. The following is a list of government agencies
with competence in environmental matters:
The environmental NGO movement in Singapore is fairly active, and liaises closely with the government, media and industry. The NGOs consist primarily of nature groups such as the Nature Society, Singapore (NSS) and also groupings of companies like the Singapore Association of Environmental Companies (SAFECO) and the Singapore Chemical Industry Council (SCIC). The umbrella organisation which coordinates the activities of environmental groups is the Singapore Environment Council (SEC), formerly known as the National Council for the Environment. The SEC aims to promote environmental awareness amongst the citizenry and constantly organises public education programmes on the environment, including seminars on the need for recycling and waste minimisation.
The hierarchy of legislation in Singapore is as follows:
Singapore’s small size and high urban density spare it of the environmental problems commonly associated with larger countries with natural resource extraction activities. Thus, problems relating to mining, forestry, large-scale agriculture and indigenous peoples are non-existent. Two general categories of environmental legislation exist - that dealing primarily with the regulation of wastes and emissions from industries, hospitals, households and vehicles (pollution control laws), and that dealing with the protection of natural areas and wildlife (nature conservation laws). The existing legislative framework has received some criticism for being too diverse and scattered throughout many Acts. There have been calls for a single framework law, and it appeared at one time that such a document might be forthcoming. However, no progress seems to have been made in this direction as of mid-1998. A selection of major legislation pertaining to the environment can be found in the Appendix. Legislation related to the environment is found throughout at least two dozen Acts. Not all of these Acts come under the administration of the ENV - for instance, marine pollution matters under the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea Act fall within the responsibility of the Maritime and Port Authority of the Ministry of Communications, while nature conservation issues come under the departments of the Ministry of National Development. Planning issues are usually handled by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. Fortunately for Singapore, the dispersed authority over matters related to the environment does not pose too severe a problem, for three reasons. First, there exists a comprehensive planning process which draws together representatives from all the relevant government agencies. Second, these agencies meet continuously to coordinate the formulation and implementation of their policies. Third, enforcement of laws by the relevant agencies is relatively quick and stringent - this is facilitated by Singapore’s small size. In other words, planning and implementation are highly centralised activities in Singapore. This is made possible due to the unique circumstances of Singapore, where the small size of the city-state and the presence of a strong government allow for centralised planning and enforcement without being hampered by provincial authorities or sectoral interests. In relation to planning, there exists a main document called the Concept Plan, which broadly outlines land use policies in Singapore. These policies are then translated into detailed proposals for local areas called "Development Guide Plans" (DGPs). There are over 50 DGPs to cover the whole area of Singapore. The implementation of the DGPs is coordinated by the Master Plan Committee (MPC), which is a collaborative effort by all the public authorities in Singapore. The MPC consists of representatives from the following agencies:
Given the relatively effective and efficient centralised planning mechanism in Singapore, the dispersed authority over environmental matters and the lack of a framework law do not appear to have severely hampered environmental management efforts. That being said, there have been calls from certain quarters to enact a framework, "umbrella" law for environmental matters. Such a law would conceivably improve upon the existing system and refine further the coordination of policy formulation and implementation. For one thing, the current system requires too many licenses and permits to be issued before factories can be operated - it would be advantageous if a framework, "omnibus" legislation could consolidate all these disparate requirements. In Singapore, a document known as the Singapore Green Plan establishes broad policies for nature conservation. Under the Green Plan, 5% of the land area is to be set aside for nature conservation. The Green Plan’s subsequent Action Programmes identified 19 nature sites and 4 coral reefs as worthy of conservation. In addition, tremendous attention is paid in Singapore towards man-made greening, in the form of tree-planting and landscaping. The city-state prides itself as a "Garden City", and is today one of the greenest cities in the world. To date, only 3% of the nature sites have legal protection under the National Parks Act (2 National Parks and 2 Nature Reserves), and there exists no protection of marine areas as entire ecosystems. Due to Singapore’s acute shortage of land, conservation of huge swathes of biodiversity-rich areas beyond the existing nature areas has been viewed to be impractical. Priority is accorded instead, to man-made greening of highways, streets and residential areas. This effort is welcomed by most Singaporeans, but naturalists like members of the Nature Society, Singapore (NSS) feel that given the extremely built-up environment, there is all the more reason to guard and protect against the depletion of whatever little undisturbed natural areas and wildlife which remain in Singapore. Hence, it appears that the debate over the protection of nature areas will continue to feature prominently in the next few years. Another issue of note is the protection of wildlife. Violations of wildlife conservation are largely unreported, and the general public is quite unaware of the laws which protect fauna and flora. While the smuggling of endangered species is judiciously monitored by the Primary Production Department of the Ministry of National Development, the fines imposed are inadequate and do not sufficiently deter potential offenders. There is significant public ignorance on matters related to the environment, and more public education is needed to redress this. There is at present no legislation in Singapore making EIAs compulsory for major developmental projects. However, as and when the Ministry of Environment deems a particular project to have sufficient potential for pollution that may affect public health, an EIA may be required. The Master Plan Committee in practice, has required EIAs of developmental projects which have pollutive potential. EIAs have to date been required for petrochemical works, gasworks and refuse incineration plants, and detailed studies are made as to the feasibility of locating an industry in a particular site. The planning process under the Concept Plan and the DGPs ensure that pollutive industries are sited far away from residential and recreational facilities. With respect to foreign investments in Singapore, projects using or storing large quantities of hazardous substances are required to engage third-party consultants to conduct EIAs to support the establishment of a plant in Singapore. To this end, the Ministry of Environment has recommended a general format for EIA reports. Hence, it can be seen that in spite of the absence of legislation requiring mandatory EIAs, a comprehensive planning process exists to ensure that industries are properly sited and environmental guarantees solicited from project proponents. However, there have recently been calls to enact EIA legislation to institutionalise the impact assessment procedure so as not to leave EIA decisions to administrative discretion. It appears that under the current system, EIAs are usually required, if at all, only of industries for pollution control purposes - the position is less clear in other situations, such as where a wooded or forested area with high biological diversity is to be cleared for specific projects. Indeed, suggestions have been made that the requirement for EIAs should not be confined to industries that have potential pollutive capacity. It remains to be seen if the government will take up this suggestion. There are at present no laws to govern soil contamination, or to require that this be cleaned up. This inadequacy was highlighted by an incident in 1996 whereby an oil company’s refinery and storage terminal was found to have contaminated the ground it was built upon over several years. The company had maintained that unless it could be shown to have contaminated the groundwater or cause wastes to be improperly stored, it had not broken any laws. Nonetheless, the company has promised that it would clean up the site. The Jurong Town Corporation (JTC), the body in charge of industrial estates in Singapore, has introduced a "decontamination" clause in its leases to "high pollution risk" industries. This requires the company to ensure at the end of its lease that no pollution had been caused to the site. If pollution had been caused, the company would have to clean up the site before returning the lease. The experience of Singapore is largely unique, due to her small size, lack of natural resources, high population density and strong governance. Environmental laws and regulations are efficiently administered through a comprehensive planning process and stringent enforcement system. Calls have been made by various quarters to further improve on the existing system, such as enacting a framework law on the environment, formal EIA legislation and regulations on soil contamination, as well as providing greater emphasis on nature conservation. Pollution control has, by any measure, been a success story in Singapore - it now appears that nature conservation issues will feature increasingly on the environmental agenda in the years to come. This will be a potentially challenging issue to resolve, given the pressures imposed by land scarcity in densely-populated Singapore.
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