Lee Kuan Yew and the search for water security

It was 2002. Then SM Lee Kuan Yew held up a bottle of Newater after drinking from it during the Tanjong Pagar National Day Dinner. It was a moment of relief.

When the tiny city-state of Singapore gained independence in 1965, its social, economic, political and environmental constraints appeared so formidable that many of those looking in from outside predicted a future of dismal dimensions.

Today the story is different.

10-year clean-up of the Singapore River

"The 10-year clean-up of the Singapore River is one example of coordinated planning, though it took time to come to fruition.

Success was made possible by the large-scale re-development of central Singapore and the elimination and control of the sources of pollution entering the river so that water could be used safely and cost-effectively for potable use.

Since the river was the main trade artery of the island and growing economic activity along its banks attracted increasing numbers of people – squatter colonies, hawkers, backyard industries – the problem was repeatedly sidestepped. The net result was that increasing quantities of domestic and industrial wastewater and solid waste was discharged into the river, seriously affecting its quality.

Lee Kuan Yew gave an ultimatum to ministries and agencies in 1977 and things started to change. They were instructed to work together to improve the water quality of the river, identify the domestic, commercial and industrial pollution sources blighting the waterway, create relevant legislation and, ultimately, redevelop Singapore’s entire central area.

More than 26,000 families were resettled into public housing, significantly improving their living conditions.

Almost 5,000 street hawkers, more than 46,000 squatters and some 800 lighters – barges used to transport goods along the river – were relocated.

Around 2,800 industrial cases of backyard trades and cottage industries were also moved, most of them into newly developed industrial estates.

Finally, some 610 pig farms and 500 duck farms, which used to discharge untreated wastes into the river, were phased out.


At US$240 million, the clean-up of the Singapore River wasn’t cheap. But a tally of the benefits – both direct and indirect – makes clear it was a sound investment. The programme transformed the face of Singapore. Land values along the river banks soared, as did tourism and business.

The search for water security

For Lee Kuan Yew, the main driver for long-term strategic planning was the search for water security.

During his premiership, water was prioritised to the extent that economic development was subordinate to the impacts it could have on water resources. This strong political support from the highest levels of government has been instrumental to the state’s development.

It is said that Singapore has been able to thrive because of its small size and that its experiences are therefore not relevant to other countries. On the contrary, without a hinterland and almost no natural resources, the tiny island has had to formulate long-term, creative solutions to ensure economic growth and a liveable environment.

Lee Kuan Yew realised as early as the late 1960s that, in the long-term, it is much more expensive for a society to live in a polluted environment than a clean one. Almost half a century later, most of the world’s leaders are still to grasp this fact.

REFERENCES:
- Singapore’s growth story holds lessons for water-scarce China by Cecilia Tortajada and Asit K. Biswas. China Dialogue, 16 May, 2013.- The Singapore Water Story: Sustainable Development in an Urban City-State, by Cecilia Tortajada, Yugal Kishore Joshi, Asit K. Biswas. Published 5th April 2013 by Routledge.