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  The Straits Times 24 Nov 06
Aren't our environs sexy?
By Peh Shing Huei

A fortnight after the Clean and Green Week, Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim tells Insight even water and trees can be sexy and, a visit to a garbage dump akin to a walk in the park

SEXY is not a word that comes to mind when referring to rubbish, landfills and canals. Smelly and gross? Maybe.

Yet, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim is determined the green equation here will be: Environment = Sexy. And the Environment and Water Resources Minister is not jesting, although he was flashing his trademark ear-to-ear smile.

'I remember the first few days after I arrived at this ministry, I said: 'Can we do two things or not? Get people to bond with water and make the environment sexy?',' he tells Insight.

More on water-bonding later. Let's talk sexy first.

Dr Yaacob's aim is simple: Make environment sexy so that Singaporeans would want to be a part of it, play in it and own it.

'People usually think the Environment Ministry is about clearing the rubbish and getting rid of rats and mosquitoes. We've got to change that image because we are much, much more than that,' he says.

A clean environment is critical to the country's development. 'If we had not kept the place clean, kept the air clean, kept the waterways clean, you think we would have the kind of investments we have today, with business people making deals sitting in the open beside Singapore River?

'Our environment now is an economic advantage, a competitive advantage,' he adds.

This was borne out in a research report global investment bank Merrill Lynch released earlier this week. It said Hong Kong's worsening air pollution will drive professionals away and cause the city to lose in its competition with Singapore.

To ensure Singapore's edge, here is how Dr Yaacob wants, or is doing, to sex up your habitat.

The Semakau Landfill, located 7km from Pasir Panjang Ferry Terminal, was opened to the public last year. It is home to rich marine life such as barracuda, trevally, sea bass and milk fish, and 54 species of birds such as the endangered great-billed heron, the Pacific reef egret and the Malaysian plover.

'When I visited Semakau, I was stunned by what I saw. This is an engineering marvel that also conserves nature. 'I said: 'Let's open it up, so people who visit realise, wow, Semakau is not a smelly place.'

'It's actually very nice, very green. And to think, I can go for a nature walk and have a picnic at a landfill!'

Hawker centres, which come under the Environment Ministry, is also being given a makeover to transform them from mere eating spots to places with ambience and a mark of lifestyle.

Busking and flea markets have joined chicken rice and nasi lemak and Dr Yaacob wants even more, both in the types of activities as well as food.

'We are looking at food mix,' he says, adding that such non-hawker fare as spaghetti and halal Chinese food have now leapt into the hawker wok.

But above all, environmental sexiness on this island must confront, and conquer, water.

To bond Singaporeans to water, Dr Yaacob and his team have introduced the ABC approach: the Active, Beautiful and Clean Waters Programme. Since earlier this year, Singapore's reservoirs, rivers and even canals are being cleaned up so that water sports fans can ski in a reservoir, kayak down the Kallang River and fish along a canal.

Recalling the change in approach, he says: 'When you go down to a reservoir, you see a big sign that says, 'Cannot this, cannot this, cannot this'. I said, Guys, let's rethink our approach. How can we bring people closer to water? 'The only way to do that is to allow them to be with the water. You've got to be able to put your hands in it and say, 'Hey, that's where my drinking water comes from, I better keep it clean'.

By having a distance, you cannot build a relationship. By bringing them closer, you build ownership.'

The new sales pitch has achieved some success. President S R Nathan agreed to give his official support to an inaugural award that would honour Singapore's finest in environmental work.

Earlier this month, the President's Award for the Environment was given out to Ambassador-at-large Tommy Koh, Nature Society Singapore president Geh Min and volunteer group Waterways Watch Society (WWS).

'To me, it was a very important event to signal to the community that we recognise your contribution at all levels - at the highest level,' says Dr Yaacob.

'The President too is passionate about this, decided what the recipients should get, and agreed to have it at the Istana. So it was a massive endorsement for everyone in the environment and water sector.'

With the image overhaul of the environment, Dr Yaacob hopes to drive home the point that his ministry is more than just people who collect your garbage, clean your streets and keep your air clean.

He says: 'We add value to the quality of life for Singaporeans and visitors, and that quality of life is something that you can feel around you but cannot measure precisely.'

Is that not sexy?

Community ownership key to clean surroundings

What are your views on engaging the community in the environment?

Forty years, we basically cleaned everything in Singapore. Our daily-rated workers cleaned our streets, our roads. It's not sustainable. So we privatised, we outsourced, we brought in companies, we broke up the sectors, got private sector involved to keep the place clean.

But at the same time, we felt that the public has a role to play because like crime, we cannot have a policeman at every corner. You need to have the eyes and ears of the community.

We need the community to care for its surroundings, to come on board and work with us. So community ownership has become a very important plank of my ministry's work in the last 21/2 years. The community has the systems in place but we got it up a couple of notches.

The Straits Times published a survey earlier this week which shows that many Singaporeans believe littering is no big deal. How do you feel reading it?

Yes, I'm a bit disappointed but I'm hopeful. I'm an eternal optimist, always think positively. I think our efforts in the schools will pay off one day because we are spending a lot of time in the schools, getting them to understand and offering opportunities to participate in the things that need to be done... Young people - in the schools, ITE, polytechnics and universities - now take the environment more seriously: studying it, making it part of their project, forming clubs to do good work.

In some ways it will rub off on their families, leaving the impression on them that 'Hey, I have a role to play - I should not litter and must recycle'.

You see professionals like Eugene Heng (a 57-year-old retired bank executive) leading Waterways Watch Society and helping to keep our rivers clean because they feel the environment is part of their lives.

We want to see all this translate into long-term behaviour and action. So all this support and pumping in of resources will hopefully help more become caring citizens and committed environmentalists who share our concerns and work with us to keep Singapore clean, green and vibrant for everyone.

How is Singapore's water industry developing?

We've been quite successful and this comes about because of the capability we have built up over 40 years. Though PUB's main role is to ensure Singapore's water needs, by having a thriving water industry we cover the entire value chain for water.

Now, we have GE Water, Siemens, CH2M Hill, Black & Veatch coming into Singapore, bringing in their R&D sector and adding vibrancy to the water scene.

Our own local chaps are doing well - Keppel Group, SembCorp Industries, Hyflux. We are looking at three major markets - China, India and the Middle East. We have a certain reputation - a strong brand name for being clean, getting things done.

So how can we go further and grow the industry?

We came up with the Environment and Water Industry Development Council, or EWI, a whole-of-government effort. And really, our aim is to grow the economy and create more jobs. I'm very hopeful. I think if we are able to seed this in the next three to five years, it will add to the growth of Singapore's economy.

I'm proud that the ministry has this role to play, because on one end, we've always been seen as a ministry that consumes resources to keep the place clean.

Now, in the next phase of development, this ministry, working with other ministries, is able to create wealth for the nation and benefit from globalisation.

The haze problem seems to be over this year. This is an Indonesian problem that affects us. What is the Singapore Government doing to help prevent fires next year?

Yes, it is an Indonesian problem. But we want to help because if we don't resolve this soon enough, the whole region will be affected. Besides the harm to our health and environment, no one will take us seriously when we say this is a great region to live and invest in.

So Singapore is pitching in in many ways, including helping to get international expertise and cooperation. The plantations are one issue that the Indonesian authorities will have to tackle. But it will also involve getting farmers to adopt alternative land-clearing methods, and even to the extent of alternative livelihood.

We hope to work with the local provinces in Indonesia and say, maybe you may want to migrate your farmers to other forms of income-generating activities that will pollute less.

But for it to be sustainable, there has to be capacity-building, which means training is important. So, at the local level, people have to be trained on alternative land clearing. It may mean even working with the local provinces to get resources.

For example, when they want to clear land, they either burn or use tractors, which means they need equipment. They need to know how to use the equipment, to maintain it and so on.

If we tell them not to clear the land, they'll ask us how are they going to survive?

But we have to tell them there are other environmentally friendly ways of clearing the land, which will not be too costly and which are responsible and sustainable. We have to be creative here. Equipment costs money and the farmers will need some help.

Perhaps, our Indonesian colleagues can think of some creative financing schemes to help these farmers. We can help in terms of training. Our objective is to prevent fires from happening.
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