Friday, March 07, 2003
ASIA FILE
Dead rivers come back to life
Singapore River had once been left for dead. Today it's breathing again and marine life has returned to its clean waters, says Barun Roy
I attended a seminar recently in Kolkata where India's moribund rivers were the subject of concern and writers, artists, poets, film-makers, photographers, and musicians discussed what could be, and should be, done to stave off environmental inroads on our waterways.
Most speakers mentioned the dangers from widespread industrial pollution, which they said should be immediately dealt with. A photographer presented evidence of what he described as "religious" pollution, equally widespread and continuing through centuries - Hindus' indiscriminate use of the Ganga, for example, including the dumping of half-burnt bodies, in the belief that the holy river will cleanse their souls and bring salvation.
A lot was mentioned of the need to enhance public awareness of the environmental threat, and, while it was generally felt that little of significance could be achieved so long as the majority of the people lived in conditions of dire poverty, everybody agreed it was necessary to try before the problem went completely out of hand.
There are examples in Asia itself where countries have been able to rescue rivers that had been environmentally as fragile as ours. Singapore River had once been left for dead. Today it's breathing again and marine life has returned to its clean and flowing waters. Manila's Pasig River, under attack from industrial wastes and effluents from squatter colonies along its tributaries, is coming back to life under a $750 million clean-up project assisted by the Asian Development Bank.
In all these cases, the governments didn't simply wait for poverty to abate first and people's awareness to grow. They identified the problem, decided to solve it, found the funds, and went into action. The rest was easy. How does one revive a river? Let's look at Singapore for an answer. By the 1850s, European and Chinese merchants had taken over the river, with all kinds of light vessels clogging it, loading and unloading cargo at warehouses that grew up along its course. All the flotsam and jetsam were left in the water to rot and stink.
Squatter colonies sprouted along the river, as did pig and duck farms, backyard industries, unsewered premises, street hawkers, and wholesale vegetable markets, and all their effluents, wastes, and garbage found their way inevitably into the river. Over time, it degenerated into an open sewer and rubbish dump. Its water turned black. All its aquatic life disappeared. It was dead.
In 1977, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew decided it was time that something should be done before the river disappeared under the accumulated filth and debris. He ordered a mammoth clean-up and said that in ten years Singaporeans should be able to enjoy their river and fish in it again. The plan involved dredging the river and physically cleaning it. More than half a million cubic metres of mud contaminated with organic waste was excavated from the Kallang Basin alone. Over 270 tonnes of rubbish, accumulated over a century, was removed from the river's banks. At the same time, activities identified as polluting the river were phased out.
All the 1,100 pig and duck farms were either relocated away from the river or closed down. Over 2,800 backyard and cottage industries were removed to new industrial estates. A total of 21,000 squatter homes with bucket or pit latrines were phased out.
All commercial traffic on the river was strictly prohibited. The warehouses along its banks were decommissioned and some 800 barges were removed from it to a new mooring place in another coastal area. By 1986, all 5,000 street hawkers that had descended on it had been re-sited at specially designed food centres with proper sewerage systems and washing and disposal facilities. A roofed vegetable wholesale marketplace was built.
Today, Singapore River is living again. The water has turned from black to brown to grey to almost blue. It's clean and odourless, with a dissolved oxygen concentration of four milligrams a litre. At last count, some 50 varieties of fish were thriving in it. The banks have been converted into promenades, with shady walkways, art venues, restaurants, entertainment spots, and retail establishments transforming the entire place around the quays into a leisure and tourist attraction.
Was regimentation the key to Singapore's success? Probably. But whoever heard, even in a democracy, of any social good ever being achieved without the will to achieve it? Only a lazy democracy seeks excuses to hide its inaction.
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