This document provides information about a current affairs quiz competition hosted by The Straits Times newspaper and the Ministry of Education in Singapore. It asks students to submit essays in response to an environmental question, with the top 10 essays being published online and the top 3 winning prizes. The quiz is part of a series of primers and events leading up to a national current affairs quiz open to pre-university and integrated programme students from 24 participating schools.

1. THIS series of 10 questions
is brought to you by the
National Current Affairs
Quiz’s innovation partner
Shell and aims to look for
the best ideas and
solutions to issues today.
í This week’s question
(part 1 of 10): If you were
in Government, what three
environmental issues would
you tackle in the next five
years? Why?
Sum up your thoughts
in 200 to 250 words and
submit your essay through
your teachers this week.
The top 10 essays
received in response to this
question will be uploaded
to The Straits Times’
current affairs website
Singapolitics from April 8
for public voting.
The top three essays
with the most votes will
each win $200 in vouchers
and be reproduced, in full
or in part, in print.
This competition is
open only to
Pre-University 1 and
Integrated Programme
Year 5 students from 24
participating schools.
This is the first of 12
primers on various
current affairs issues,
which will be
published in the
run-up to The Straits
Times-Ministry of
Education National
Current Affairs Quiz.
ABOUT THE BIG QUIZ
í Co-organisers: The Straits Times and the Ministry of Education
í Presenting sponsor: Singapore Press Holdings Foundation
í Innovation partner: Shell
í The run-up to the Big Quiz comprises:
1. A series of 12 primers on current affairs topics
2. Talks given by editors and correspondents of The
Straits Times
3. A sponsored segment on students’ say to set questions
THE BIG QUIZ CONTEST
Four quiz rounds in which teams from participating schools will
vie for the top prize: a championship trophy and $5,000 cash
í Open to: First year pre-university students and Year 5
Integrated Programme students from 24 participating schools
For more information, go to www.straitstimes.com/thebigquiz
Thought
Leadership
Question
By GRACE CHUA
SINGAPORE is not unique: not in
its ambition to be a leading global
city, not in its size constraints, or
in its diversity and the tensions
that result when people from all
backgrounds rub shoulders with
one another.
But it has tried to manage its
land use in some unusual ways,
such as reclaiming a large percent-
age of its land area, going under-
ground, and making every patch
of land work harder.
Turning marshes or sea to solid
land is one of Singapore’s oldest
methods of creating more land
area.
Since the 1960s, Singapore has
added more than 100 sq km, or a
sixth of its original size – five
times the size of the greater Tam-
pines area.
The industrial Jurong Island
itself is made up of seven smaller
islands stitched together by
reclamation, and at 32 sq km it is
larger than Singapore’s four
gazetted nature reserves put to-
gether.
Today, the Government’s Land
Use Plan proposes future reclama-
tion along northern and southern
coastlines and islands from Pulau
Tekong to Pulau Hantu, though
environment groups are con-
cerned this could affect marine bi-
odiversity.
Land reclamation also has a lim-
it: Filling in greater sea depths
takes more sand and is more cost-
ly. Along the southern coast, re-
claiming land farther out to sea
would also begin to interfere with
shipping lanes.
Singapore also puts some func-
tions underground, particularly
those that would otherwise take
up too much valuable surface
land.
Since 2008, the military has
stored ammunition beneath a dis-
used Mandai quarry, while the Ju-
rong Rock Cavern is being built to
store crude oil and other petrole-
um products.
Critical infrastructure like pow-
er cables, MRT lines, the Deep
Tunnel Sewerage System, and the
Common Services Tunnel under
Marina Bay are also beneath the
surface, and there are theoretical
proposals and studies for housing
power plants, water treatment,
waste incineration and even nucle-
ar energy underground.
Finally, it is trying to squeeze
as much use from every piece of
land.
The western Tengeh reservoir
will get floating solar panels in a
pilot project to tap the sun’s
energy for electricity, while com-
munity farms in Bukit Panjang
and Clementi serve as recreation
areas and a food source.
Even roads could be put to bet-
ter use.
Last month, in a Budget debate
in Parliament, Transport Minister
Lui Tuck Yew said the Land
Transport Authority was studying
the feasibility of a “reversible
flow” traffic scheme for some are-
as where heavy traffic is one-di-
rectional at different times of the
day, such as the stretch between
the Kranji Expressway and the
Pan Island Expressway.
GRACE CHUA
S
INGAPORE, like many
other cities, is heavily
planned, and replanned.
It has a long history
of planning, from the
Raffles Town Plan of 1822 to the
Singapore Improvement Trust
pre-independence, and then the
State and City Planning Project of
1967 to provide adequate housing
and employment.
The scope of city planning has
grown even further.
In its most recent Land Use
Plan released earlier this year, the
Government laid out its vision for
housing, transport infrastructure,
commerce and industry, and
parks and reserves till 2030.
But some of these plans have
drawn both cheers and criticism.
For example, environment and
heritage groups have expressed
concerns that Singapore is chip-
ping away at its green and historic
spaces.
And in Parliament, Nominated
Member of Parliament Faizah
Jamal expressed worry that a
proposed MRT line through the
Central Catchment Nature
Reserve would affect wildlife
there.
It is one thing to develop land
use plans that meet basic needs,
but quite another to create a sense
of “place” or identity which
draws people to a city.
Around the world, cities are
trying to balance economic
growth, the needs of a growing
population, and conserving the
spaces which give a city its
identity.
Some have taken to redevelop-
ment.
In the United States, once-in-
dustrial cities like Cleveland and
Cincinnati are being given a new
lease of life through community
farms, new housing and commer-
cial spaces.
Shanghai’s artists, drawn by
cheap rent, have turned a former
textile factory area into a warren
of art galleries and studios.
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong and
London, there is a chronic hous-
ing crunch.
Wealthy investors snap up mul-
ti-million-dollar apartments even
as these cities struggle with short-
ages of affordable housing, unable
to meet their residents’ needs.
Might some of these cities’
much-vaunted green lungs or
historic buildings have to go?
In Singapore, planners make
nearly every piece of land serve at
least one function, and many
serve multiple functions.
For example, a nature reserve
is also a water catchment area.
Its trees capture carbon diox-
ide, and it might also serve as a
recreational area with trails for
hikers and bikers.
Reservoirs and rivers are also
used for water sports and fishing.
In fact, the latest land use plan
consolidates single-use sites such
as military areas, and devotes less
space to others, like golf courses.
But some of the functions of a
piece of land may run counter to
each other.
A road may be a thoroughfare
for easing jams, but also a barrier
between one place and another.
Consider the plight of elderly
Marine Parade residents.
The raised Still Road South
ramp is hard to cross, separating
the senior citizens’ centre on one
side from other amenities in
Marine Parade Central on the
other.
So planners must balance, for
example, the need for East Coast
traffic to get onto the expressway
with the ability of older residents
to get around the estate.
Besides using land for multiple
purposes, planners also conserve
historic elements, giving the city
character and making it a more de-
sirable place to live.
For example, Singapore is turn-
ing historic landmarks into public
institutions. The former Supreme
Court and City Hall buildings will
become the National Art Gallery
in 2015.
But at the same time, the
Government tore down the
former National Library at the
foot of Fort Canning in 2004 to
make way for a road tunnel –
something people are still sore
about nearly a decade later.
Planners recognise that a little
community involvement in the
use of space gives the community
some ownership of that space. For
example, cafes at Kampong Glam
bear decorative graffiti, and
businesses in the Haji Lane area
organised a weekend road closure
to entice visitors on foot.
The former Bidadari cemetery
will be turned into a housing es-
tate with a memorial park to mark
the cemetery’s significance.
But another cemetery, Bukit
Brown, will soon have a road
through it and make way for
housing.
Though it is no longer open for
new burials, biodiversity-rich
Bukit Brown remains a space for
religious rituals, birdwatchers and
joggers – not to mention the final
resting place of pioneers like
Nanyang University co-founder
Tan Lark Sye and businessman
Ong Sam Leong.
How might Singapore house a
growing population while preserv-
ing more nature areas and
retaining the character and com-
munity feel of its neighbour-
hoods?
Dr Stephen Cairns of the
Future Cities Laboratory here, a
research collaboration between
Singapore and ETH Zurich,
suggests allowing “3-D cities” to
evolve.
Of course all cities are techni-
cally three-dimensional.
But what Dr Cairns means is
that some, like Hong Kong or
Tokyo, have on their upper floors
and levels the same kind of
vibrant city life one normally
finds on the street.
Having mixed-use develop-
ments at multiple levels – say a
coffee shop on one floor, a
hairdresser on another – and
allowing for serendipitous encoun-
ters between neighbours could be
a way of building the community
even as land use intensifies, he
said.
“It gives more possibilities for
identity to develop. If I’m living
in a particular part of the block,
close to emerging manufacturing,
I can look across to a common
park – I feel like I own it, like it’s
in my neighbourhood.”
And increasing density allows
the city’s existing heritage areas
and green spaces to be less
threatened by development, he
added.
Singapore may not be accus-
tomed to living this way, he said,
but a few generations ago, even
high-rise living was a new con-
cept.
The city is always changing –
even if change takes place over
very long periods. The question is
how best to ease the transition.
During Budget debates in
Parliament last month, Senior
Minister of State for National
Development Tan Chuan-Jin said
the Government tries to seek out
and weigh different views on
development, and engage stake-
holders.
But he noted the balance be-
tween conservation and develop-
ment was subjective and highly
contextual.
“For example, one may strong-
ly believe that this patch of
greenery is very important. But
somebody else might say, does it
really matter? Why are we spend-
ing so much time, so much re-
sources, dragging our feet on the
issue?”
caiwj@sph.com.sg
THE SINGAPORE PERSPECTIVE
Making every patch of land work harder
Woodleigh MRT station on the North East Line is built underground, as are other critical infrastructure like power cables,
the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System, and the Common Services Tunnel under Marina Bay. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
A view of the Singapore Flyer and Marina Bay Golf Course as seen from the rooftop of the Ritz-Carlton hotel. The latest land use plan devotes less space to uses like golf courses. ST PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA
PRIMER
Planning and replanning land use
M O N D A Y , A P R I L 1 , 2 0 1 3 OOPPIINNIIOONN A23