wild places | wild happenings | wild news
make a difference for our wild places

home | links | search the site
  all articles latest | past | articles by topics | search wildnews
wild news on wildsingapore
  Straits Times Forum 19 Dec 06
Turn vacant land into botanical gardens to create a 'green lung'
Letter from Foo Say Chew

 Straits Times Forum 15 Dec 06
Still a 'Garden City' 10 years from now?
Letter from He Ruo Fan (Ms)

SOME 10 years ago, Singapore still deserved its name of 'Garden City'. The streets were tidy and clean, and the greenery, lush.

Today, Singapore is different. Gone is the spectacular tidiness and cleanliness. Except for a few main streets, empty cans, cigarette butts and litter are a common sight.

More startling and disconcerting is that the greenery is fast disappearing.

Next to the Queenstown MRT station, where I once lived, a large open field was swallowed up by new HDB apartments.

Soon after that, I saw the wooded fields plus a fringe carpark at the junction of Whitley Road and Dunearn Road make way for the Raffles Town Club.

Then a large green lung next to the Orchard MRT station gave way to a new development.

Taking a walk with my children around our neighbourhood a few weeks ago, we were shocked to see the forested hill at the junction of Irwell Bank Road and River Valley Road being boarded up.

On a subsequent walk, we noticed a property developer's signboard. Many residents in the River Valley area take walks around the small hill which boasts robust, gigantic old trees and dense grass, a veritable oasis among the skyscrapers.

With the property market heating up, we will lose more green lungs as developers cash in.

Someday, Singapore and its citizens would pay for these losses, just as we have paid a price for tearing down many of our heritage buildings too quickly in the past.

I appeal to the Government to save our precious greenery.

Otherwise, what will Singapore be like in 10 years' time?

Straits Times Forum 19 Dec 06
Turn vacant land into botanical gardens to create a 'green lung'
Letter from Foo Say Chew

I would like to add to Ms He Ruo Fan's letter 'Still a 'Garden City' 10 years from now?' to the Forum page on Dec 15.

In land-scarce Singapore, it will be very wasteful to set aside large parcels of land as 'green lungs'.

If we look around, there are many small pockets of land which are not meaningful for development but can be artistically landscaped or turned into small gardens or woods.

These will be adequate to make Singapore a real garden city as well as provide lots of oxygen for fresh air.

Land-scarce countries such as Japan and in Europe are very good examples for Singapore to emulate.

However, I agree that carefully planned 'iconic botanical gardens' should be developed in selected areas - one each in the northern, southern, eastern, western and the central parts of Singapore.
links
See the leafmonkey's laments about the loss of greenery in Clementi: Last look at Clementi
Related articles on Singapore: general environmental issues
about the site | email ria
  News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes.
 

website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com