Eylia, 8.

Geography
Issue one: Water Supply

The history of modern water supply in Singapore began with the construction of the MacRitchie Reservoir, which was built by the British in 1868. Other two reservoirs, Lower Peirce Reservoir and the Upper Seletar Reservoir, were completed in 1910 and 1940 resultantly, in order to supply the rapidly modernising colonial city with sufficient water. However, more water was needed to sustain the citys growth. Then, Singapore signed an agreement with Malaya that allowed Singapore to rent land in Johor and use its water for free. Pipelines were also built in 1932 to transport raw water from Johor to Singapore and a smaller quantity of treated water from Singapore to Johor. According to my contextual knowledge, the agreement was taken place by two new agreements signed in 1961 and 1962, which was after Singapore had gained independence. Singapore built two water treatment plants and a new, extended pipeline from Johor. Singapore also constructed a dam on the Johor River after several negotiations. Singapore's major reservoirs are located in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, a protected area that has been reforested to protect the water resources and act as a "green lung" for the city. Water is a scarce and precious resource in Singapore. Singapores water resources are limited and already 50 percent of land is used for water catchment.The rivers in Singapore do not provide an adequate supply of fresh water to meet existing needs and the amount of rainfall collected in catchment areas is also not enough to satisfy all our water needs. Therefore, it is of great significance that residents should play a part in water conservation. Water is needed for survival and as the population of Singapore increases over the years, the demand for water also increases. In research of methods used to increase water supply in Singapore, PUB, the national water agency, has put in place a water supply strategy known as the Four National Taps Strategy. The water supply comprises, 1. Water from local catchment areas, 2. Imported water, 3. NEWater and, 4. Desalinated water. In my perspective, these are effective ways to increase the water supply in Singapore. Despite having no conflicts or having just signed an agreement with an expiry date a decade away, we should not get confident that another agreement would just be simply made. A conflict may start anytime if we are not careful and the countries can choose whether or not to continue supplying us with water. Hence, I think that it is important for Singapore to be self-sufficient and obtain fresh water supply from local sources. Supplying people with water from local water catchment areas does not seem to have much negative consequences because rainwater is much cleaner than used water and does not contain salt un-like sea water. It will not only help to increase the amount of rainwater collected in a country but it also helps to keep the cost of water treatment down. However, building these catchment areas means that there will be less land available for other purposes such as the construction of roads, houses and industries. It is

a problem that Singapore might face in the future, provided that there would be an increase supply of land in the following years. As for the other two methods of increasing the water supply, I think that it is also efficient because of how we do not have to depend on other countries for our water supply. However, I think that it is costly for the desalination of water as the cost of building and operating the desalination plant is high, similar to NEWater. Although it is cheaper than desalination, the machine is still costly. These two methods may be a better solution in the long term, but in my opinion, I think that the government should continue with this strategy because if any of the national taps are unavailable, Singapore still has other solutions among the four. This shows how Singapore must be ready for future challenges and always have other ways of solving the problem as Singapore works towards becoming a global centre for high-tech manufacturing industries.

Reflection: I enjoy doing articles like this assignment because it makes us do research on the topics that we are learning about and it helps me to understand better when I have to construct my own article, using my own words as much as possible. Also, it is a good idea for having the marks shared with our History as we would have lesser work to do but also we would be researching for both geographical and historic answers for our assignments.