Govt preparing for possibility of rising sea levels

The Straits Times, April 23, 2007
By Zakir Hussain


SINGAPORE could be affected by rising sea levels some 50 or 100 years from now, but the Government has already contacted the Dutch to tap their expertise in building dykes.

In revealing this, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew provided a measure of the kind of government that Singapore has, and must have in future.

'We start learning now because by the time the waters have risen (and) we want to start learning, that is too late,' he told some 400 Young PAP members on Saturday.

'That is the kind of government Singapore must have.

'If we don't have that kind of a government, and that kind of people who can go to Delft Hydraulics, learn from them, and bring them here, do research and work out how to build dykes in a South-east Asian situation, then we will not exist, that is all.

'We will go back to an insignificant island.'

Mr Lee made the point when he touched on the effects of global warming.

Experts suggest that if the ice caps melt, waters could rise a minimum of 18cm by the end of this century - which Singapore can survive - or a maximum of 6m, which would spell trouble for Singapore and many cities.

'So, we have already got in touch with the Dutch, who know how to build dykes,' Mr Lee said.

He went on to make the point that Singapore needed 'capable, intelligent, honest, dedicated leaders'.

'That is how we got here, and we need that to continue to be here,' he said.

Delft Hydraulics, a Netherlands-based water research and consulting organisation, recently set up a research centre here with the National University of Singapore and the Public Utilities Board.

Delft is also helping with the Marina Barrage, a dam being built across Marina Bay to create a new reservoir.