10 wishes for the environment

The Straits Times, February 7, 2007


by Tommy Koh
Singapore's Ambassador at large


* I WISH that the newly established Asia-Pacific Water Forum, whose governing council I chair, will succeed in its goal of providing water for all. At present, over one billion people in the world, including more than 500 million in Asia, do not have access to clean water.

* I wish that Jack Sim, the founder of the World Toilet Organisation, will succeed in convening the inaugural World Sanitation Forum in Singapore. At present, it is estimated that more than two billion people in the world do not have access to modern sanitation. There is a close nexus between water and sanitation.

* I wish that this year will be the last in which forest fires will rage in Indonesia, thereby causing transboundary air pollution in Singapore, Malaysia and other parts of South-east Asia.

* I wish that the air quality in Singapore will become even better in the years to come, as a result of the increasing use of motor vehicles with non-polluting and low-polluting engines and the decreasing use of vehicles with high-polluting engines. I wish that it will become fashionable in Singapore for motorists to own and run hybrid and other fuel-efficient cars and unfashionable to drive petrol guzzlers. I hope more Singaporeans will emulate the good example of Minister Yaacob Ibrahim, who drives a hybrid car.

* I wish that we would take better care of our seas and oceans, for example, by reducing marine pollution from land-based sources and stopping the over-exploitation of the world's fish stocks, some of which are in danger of extinction.

* I wish that Singapore will benchmark Japan's energy efficiency, which ranks No.1 in the world. Energy efficiency is defined as the amount of energy used to produce $1 of GDP. One area in which Singapore can improve its energy efficiency is in our use of air-conditioning. A foreign friend, visiting Singapore for the first time, observed that Singapore has two seasons: summer outdoors and winter indoors.

* I wish that we will be more economical in our use of water. Let us all cooperate by, for example, asking the waiter in a restaurant not to replenish the water in our glasses when we have had enough. I have noticed that, typically, at the end of a meal in a restaurant, the water glasses are filled to the brim. So much clean water is thrown away every day in Singapore.

* I wish that Singaporeans will learn the good habit of turning off the lights in their rooms or offices when they go out for a meeting or for lunch. Our bad habit of leaving the lights on when we are not around is probably one of the reasons for our low energy efficiency.

* I wish that more Singaporeans will learn to love our beautiful trees, our nature reserves, our beaches and coral reefs and the natural world. One of our biggest challenges is to reconcile human enterprise with the natural world. We should take more seriously the threat and consequences of global warming.

* I wish that Singapore will become a centre of research and development and a test-bed for environmental technologies, products, services, as well as a regional hub for the trading of such technology, products, services and of carbon credit under the Kyoto Protocol.


Tommy Koh

The writer, Singapore's Ambassador-at-large, is chairman of the Institute of Policy Studies and the National Heritage Board. He was conferred the President's Award for the Environment last November.