How Singapore is tackling land shortages

singapore is called one of the four asian tigers for a reason after lagging behind other countries back in the 1960s the country made the leap to become one of the most developed economies not only in asia but throughout the world today singapore consistently enters the top 10 world rankings of macro indicators and living standards and the most amazing thing is that this was possible in a very small area after all singapore is the 20th smallest country in the world in terms of area yes you heard that right the total area of singapore is 733 square kilometers for comparison this is three times less than tokyo and half the size of london not surprisingly land in singapore is the most valuable and expensive resource so how is singapore coping with the land shortage and why does this lead to conflicts with neighbors since the city of singapore began appearing in the wetland 200 years ago its area has grown by 27 although the border with other countries has not changed but 578 square kilometers have become 733 today it all started in 1819 as soon as the british established control here they began to drain the mangrove swamps in order to obtain land suitable for development in 100 years the relief had already changed significantly but worse was yet to come the first large-scale land reclamation project was the construction of kallang airport from 1932 to 1936 1.4 square kilometers of land were drained in order to build it back then it was called an audacious engineering project built on the most mosquito infested swamps in the world as well as the aviation marvel of the east and then the process acquired a truly gigantic scale within the country the east coast the great reclamation project was launched in 1966 in over 30 years more than 1 500 000 hectares of new land were to appear in just one district of the city the project was divided into seven stages adding land gradually as a result a territory that today all tourists who have visited singapore know it has emerged the famous marina bay how was this achieved technically in singapore they went the simplest way they just took more earth and sand and poured them into a new place fortunately the shallow depth of the water allowed this to be done for the project of the great reclamation of the east coast the land was taken by cutting off several neighboring hills this was not enough so they had to dig deep and now there is a small bedrock reservoir in this place after that the soil cut by excavators was moved on belt conveyors to the east coast there it was loaded onto barges and dumped into the sea in the area that needed to be reclaimed in the last stage bulldozers and dump trucks leveled and compacted the newly created surface to its final level the reclaimed land was used for the construction of the residential and commercial real estate this is understandable after all during the implementation of the project the population of a developing country doubled from 1.8 to 3.6 million people in 1996. to connect the new districts with the rest of the city a motorway was built and the icing on the cake for the residents was 185 hectares of parkland and picturesque 15 kilometer beach as a result today marina bay is essentially a new city center with its stunning waterfront views skyscrapers a mega hotel and a casino resort but it's not just the east coast that has been reclaimed in the last 50 years of singapore's existence there were still many swamps near the now defunct kalang airport they were covered with earth taken from other areas on the west coast the clementi area has been developed with 89 hectares of new land new areas have also grown in the straits of jihor which separates singapore from malaysia what today we see on the map as jurong island until 1993 was a scattering of small islands for six billion dollars they were turned into a 3 000 hectare industrial estate that today houses more than 100 oil petrochemical and specialty chemical companies one of the world's busiest airports changi is also built on reclaimed land the first stage began in 1975 and the airport grew to its current size after the next stage of reclamation completed in 2006. of course every metal has two sides such active construction means the complete destruction of singapore's coastal ecosystems the coastal forests and mangrove swamps of the country have completely disappeared coral reefs are also being destroyed moreover toxic chemicals present in most aggregates have polluted much of singapore's marine ecosystems but as with the chinese smog we talked about in one of our videos this is a price that a developing country is willing to pay without any hesitation but ecology is far from the main problem of singapore's land reclamation relations with neighbors are much worse the expansion of the territory that goes into the sea means the expansion of the boundaries of territorial waters and in the case of malaysia countries can simply so to say run into each other the latest scandals and claims submitted at the diplomatic level are the expansion of the port of johor bahru and the construction of the forest city commercial facility in malaysia however the malays alone are not to blame for the conflicts these are just responses to the aggressive development of singapore earlier singapore also received a ban on the export of sand from almost all of its closest neighbors malaysia indonesia vietnam and cambodia therefore the country has redirected purchases to china myanmar and the philippines and is also developing cooperation with india but you need to understand that before the embargo indonesia lost more than two dozen sandy islands which were completely dug out and they say that smuggling continues to this day although singapore officially declares that all deliveries to the country are absolutely legal all this leads to singapore actively seeking new solutions in terms of expansion and efficient use of the territory first the re-cultivation technology is changing the country is massively switching to the dutch method of reclamation with polders in this case a dam is first built then all the water is completely pumped out of the separated area and the resulting pit can be filled with anything not just soil construction waste and fairly reliable concrete are also suitable in singapore areas with a water depth of 20 meters are already being re-cultivated and they are ready to do it at even greater depths secondly unique infrastructure projects which are being implemented in singapore are designed to save the country's territory while providing it with new opportunities for instance in 2021 a floating solar powered farm was launched on the tenge reservoir its area is equivalent to the size of 45 football fields and it is one of the largest in the world or another example is an eight-story fish farm with a capacity of up to three thousand tons annually yes the cost of fish production in such a system is twice as high as with conventional methods but in this case the save territory is much more expensive thirdly the country rents or buys land in other countries providing itself with food for example over the past 10 years singapore has been actively investing in china's agricultural industry there may be many solutions to the problem of lack of territory but one thing is clear singapore clearly does not intend to stop the goal until 2030 is to expand the territory by 30 of its initial size or to develop approximately 2 000 more hectares of land concurrently an underground direction for expansion is being worked out so far everything remains at the stage of projects and discussions but the singapore authorities are considering the possibility of building underground industrial and commercial facilities as well as laying roads and tunnels the possibility of building establishments on the water is also carefully considered but for tourist purposes rather than real housing and the story does not end with the sand with the melting of glaciers in greenland its vast deposits were exposed and if the cost of transportation is acceptable singapore is ready to buy after all they believe they still have a lot to win back from the sea and such coveted square kilometers remain to the border with indonesia [Music]

Channel: Innovative Techs

Views: 297,244

Keywords: singapore, climatechange, Singapore's, change the world, singapore sand, singapore land reclamation, global trash problem, construction, in the world, science, documentary, climate change, lack of land, singapore waste island, singapore history, singapore city, another level, ecosystem, crisis, facts you didn’t know, most amazing, most, Innovative, innovative techs, climate crisis, energy storage

Id: oiHI8uJUVnU

Length: 9min 32sec (572 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 06 2022