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Land from Sand: Singapore’s Reclamation Story

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Land from Sand: Singapore’s Reclamation Story

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Thanks to land reclamation, the tiny red dot has broadened its shores substantially. Lim Tin Seng discovers just how much Singapore has grown since colonial times.

Aerial photograph of ongoing reclamation work in Tuas. Photo by Richard W. J. Koh. All rights reserved, Koh, T. (2015). Over Singapore (pp. 108-109). Singapore: Editions Didier Millet.

Over the past two centuries, Singapore's land area has expanded by a whopping 25 percent - from 58,150 to 71,910 hectares (or 578 to 719 sq km). This gradual increase in land surface is not because of tectonic movements or divine intervention, but rather the miracle of a man-made engineering feat known as land reclamation.

The quest for land is as old as time immemorial; one of the reasons nations go to war is to gain new territory to support a growing population. Land-scarce Singapore, however, has elected to create new land by reclaiming it from the rivers and the seas.

Boat Quay: The First Reclamation Project

Many people think of land reclamation in Singapore as a fairly recent phenomenon, but in actual fact the earliest reclamation project took place in colonial times. When Stamford Raffles landed at the mouth of the Singapore River in January 1819, the lay of the land was vastly different from what we see today. The river was flanked by mangrove swamps and mosquito-infested jungle, and what is now Telok Ayer Street and Beach Road were coastal areas that hugged the sea.

This lithograph (c. 1850) by Lieutenant Edwin Augustus Porcher from the British Royal Navy shows the view as seen from South Boat Quay, where Singapore's first reclamation took place in 1822. Courtesy of the National Museum of Singapore, National Heritage Board.

It did not take long for the British to get down to business. Singapore was officially claimed by Raffles as a colony, and just four years later, the island witnessed the first of its many topographic transformations.

The first land reclamation project in Singapore took place in 1822 at the south bank of the Singapore River. Initially, Raffles had eyed the Esplanade-Rochor River beach front, north of Singapore River, as the commercial district. But as the area was unsuitable for shipping activities due to shallow waters and the surf, Raffles altered his town plan accordingly.

As the south bank occupied a lowlying marsh that was prone to flooding, a hillock near where Battery Road is located today was levelled to provide earth to fill the wetlands. About 300 coolies were hired to carry out the work and an embankment was built along the river's edge to prevent the water from overflowing into the land. The process took about four months and gave rise to a crescent-shaped area known today as Boat Quay. This, together with what was left of the hillock, became Commercial Square - and eventually, Raffles Place - the heart of the commercial district as mapped out in Raffles' 1822 town plan of Singapore.

Collyer Quay: Creating the Waterfront

Boat Quay and Commercial Square grew rapidly. By the late 1860s, the mercantile community had outgrown the site, spilling over to another reclaimed strip of land to the south. Known as Collyer Quay, this stretch - from Johnston's Pier to the old Telok Ayer Market - was reclaimed between 1859 and 1864. This was part of a scheme conceived by the Municipal Engineer, George Chancellor Collyer.

Named after George Chancellor Collyer, then Chief Engineer of the Straits Settlements, Collyer Quay was built on reclaimed land by convict labour and completed in 1864. Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

Collyer wanted to build a seawall to serve as a landing site and a road behind it so that merchants could have their establishments facing the waterfront. This would not only improve the "aspect of Singapore's waterfront", but also allow the merchants to keep an eye on the movement of ships carrying their goods. Indeed, some of the first buildings constructed along Collyer Quay were linked at the second storey by a verandah that faced the sea. Peons armed with telescopes would be stationed along the verandah to announce the arrival of their company ships.

As work on the foundation of the seawall could be carried out only when the tide was at its lowest ebb, an occurrence that took place once every fortnight, the reclamation proceeded at a glacial pace. It took three years for the seawall to be completed and another year to lay the road behind it.

First Reclamation at Telok Ayer: Redrawing the Coastline

This reclamation project was a complex one as the Public Works Department (PWD) had to blast out parts of Mount Wallich and Mount Palmer in order to create an opening into Tanjong Pagar. The earth from the excavations was then used as landfill to create Telok Ayer Bay. The work was tedious as the hills were rocky and the sides had to be cut and graded. In addition, the shoreline had to be drained while keeping a section of it accessible so that fishermen could continue their trade. By 1886, the stretch extending into Cecil Street was completed, allowing the colonial government to start leasing the reclaimed land to merchants.

Second Reclamation at Telok Ayer: An Unexpected Tidal Basin

As merchants moved into the reclaimed lands of Telok Ayer, commercial activities began to expand westward. This led to the development of Tanjong Pagar and the growing importance of New Harbour (renamed Keppel Harbour in 1900) as the main port-of-call in Singapore. However, many traders, especially those using smaller vessels such as prows and junks, still preferred to anchor near the Singapore River as it was closer to Commercial Square.

Between 1893 and 1903, the arrival of such vessels mushroomed from 7,062 to 10,974, causing the Singapore River to become congested and polluted. In October 1898, a Commission was appointed to address this problem. The report, issued in June 1899, recommended that a new harbour be built along Raffles Quay, precipitating the second reclamation project at Telok Ayer.

The plan for the new harbour, unveiled in 1902 and revised in 1904, was drafted by the engineering firm Coode, Son & Matthews, and entailed reclaiming an 88-acre tract with a 5,000-ft long seawall that stretched from Johnston's Pier to Tanjong Malang where Palmer Road stands today. The initial plans were more ambitious but, in the end, the authorities decided to scale back their plans due to budgetary constraints.

Work began smoothly at first but in 1910, problems began to surface when dredging operations commenced. When engineers discovered that the seawall was sinking, work was suspended. At the time, 65 out of the 88 acres of land had been reclaimed and 4,120 feet of the seawall erected. However, as the construction of the seawall had been carried out simultaneously on both ends, the engineers were left with an incomplete seawall and a gaping 880-ft space in between.

An aerial view of the Central Business District in the 1950s with the octagonal-shaped Telok Ayer Market (Lau Pa Sat) on the left and Clifford Pier jutting out into the sea on the right. In the foreground is Telok Ayer Basin where small vessels once anchored. The tidal basin was eventually reclaimed in the 1970s. © Urban Redevelopment Authority. All rights reserved.

Kallang Basin and Beach Road

The hefty cost of the Telok Ayer Tidal Basin project did not stop the colonial government from commissioning more reclamations. In August 1931, it unveiled a massive reclamation project at Kallang Basin for the construction of Kallang Airport. Costing 9 million Straits dollars, it involved the reclamation of 339 acres of mangrove swamp dubbed "the worst mosquito-infested land on the island". Due to the complexity and cost, the PWD was asked to lead the project. And perhaps to prevent the repetition of the Telok Ayer Basin fiasco, the PWD first carried out extensive soil surveys. It also allowed large areas of the basin to dry out completely first before filling it.

The filling operation started in May 1932 using a workforce of over 400 coolies. When completed in October 1936, the construction of the airport had already started. Comprising a terminal building, two hangars, a circular landing field and a slipway for seaplanes, it occupied almost three quarters of the 339 acres of reclaimed land. The remaining land was set aside for the airport's future expansion. Kallang Airport was declared opened in June 1937 by Governor Shenton Thomas, who declared it the "finest airport in the world". PWD Director Major R. L. Nunn said that it was an "audacious engineering achievement".

Even as Kallang Basin was being reclaimed, the authorities had embarked on another project in June 1932. This would add 47 acres to the Beach Road Reclamation site to create a foreshore that would stretch from Stamford Road to Rochor River. The site, also known as Raffles Reclamation Ground, was created by two earlier reclamations that took place in the 1840s and 1890s. The reclaimed land was used to build Alhambra and Marlborough cinemas, Beach Road police station, and the Singapore Volunteer Corps Headquarters and Drill Hall (the former Beach Road Camp). The open land also regularly hosted football matches and circus shows.

This latest reclamation plan would turn the Beach Road shoreline into a "new waterfront", with a bridge built over Stamford Canal to provide a "waterfront drive" from Anderson Bridge to Kallang. To complement this vision, a 6-acre reclamation project was commissioned in 1939 to enlarge the Esplanade along Connaught Drive to create a 600-yard tract linking Anderson Bridge to Stamford Canal.

The Beach Road and Esplanade reclamations were completed at a cost of about 1.2 million Straits dollars. However, the waterfront vision did not materialise until after World War II when Merdeka Bridge (now Nicoll Highway) was built and the Esplanade reclamation site was turned into a park known as Queen Elizabeth Walk (now Esplanade Park).

The Kallang Basin and Beach Road reclamations would be the last major land reclamation projects in colonial Singapore. It would take another 30 years before any more new land would be reclaimed from the sea. In total, about 300 hectares (3 sq km) were added during the colonial period. While this is not a figure to be sniffed at given the technology available at the time, it would be dwarfed by the island's post-Independence reclamation activities. Between 1965 and 2015, Singapore would reclaim an astounding 13,800 hectares (138 sq km) of land.

East Coast: The Great Reclamation

The first major post-Independence reclamation project was the East Coast Reclamation. Dubbed the "Great Reclamation", it added a 1,525-hectare tract along the southeastern coast of the island. The project was undertaken by the Housing and Development Board (HDB), one of three government agencies appointed to carry out land reclamation in Singapore. But first, before any work began, a pilot project was carried out by the HDB in 1963 to reclaim 48 acres in the Bedok area.

Work on the East Coast Reclamation site began officially in 1966 and would continue for a remarkable 30 years over seven phases. Phases I and II from Bedok to the tip of Tanjong Rhu took place between 1966 and 1971, resulting in 458 hectares of land as well as a 9-km stretch of sandy beach. Phases III and IV began simultaneously in 1971 at both ends of the newly reclaimed East Coast strip. When work was completed in 1975, Phase III had added 67 hectares of land to the foreshore fronting Tanjong Rhu and Queen Elizabeth Walk, while Phase IV added 486 hectares from Bedok to Tanah Merah Besar.

Phase V involved the reclamation of Telok Ayer Basin. Starting in 1974, it extended the already reclaimed foreshore by 34 hectares and expanded the basin.

On completion of this phase in 1977, the reclamation formed a new site known as Marina Centre and a massive lagoon. This was followed by another two phases in 1979 - Phases VI and VII - which extended the newly reclaimed foreshores of Tanjong Rhu and Telok Ayer Basin to create Marina East and Marina South respectively. Together with Marina Centre, these plots formed a 660-hectare reclaimed site called Marina City and later Marina Bay.

The total cost of the East Coast project was $613 million. Fill materials were obtained from multiple sources, including Siglap Plain and the hills in Bedok and Tampines, where the earth was cut by bucket wheel excavators before being transported by a conveyor belt to a jetty off Bedok. There, the earth was loaded onto barges and transported to fill the area to be reclaimed. The entire operation was carried out around the clock, with headlands constructed at regular intervals off the reclaimed coast to protect the newly formed shoreline.

The reclaimed lands were used largely for commercial and residential purposes. In the east coast, housing estates such as Marine Parade and Katong sprang up, providing accommodation for an estimated 100,000 residents. To link the housing estates as well as the commercial centres in Siglap, Joo Chiat and Bedok to the city, a major arterial road, the East Coast Parkway, was constructed along the newly reclaimed coast. Parallel to the expressway, a linear park was built to provide recreational space for residents. Today, East Coast Park comprises 185 hectares of parkland and a scenic 15-km beach.

The East Coast district of Singapore with Katong in the foreground. Marine Parade stretches from the flyover to the lagoon near Bedok Jetty. The strip parallel to Marine Parade Road with the highrises is land that has been reclaimed from the sea. Photo by Richard W. J. Koh. All rights reserved, Koh, T. (2015). Over Singapore (pp. 140-141). Singapore: Editions Didier Millet.

The other end of the reclaimed land around Marina Bay was to provide space in time to come for the expansion of the city centre. Amazingly, the idea of this new downtown core was conceived several decades before the first soaring skyscrapers arose here in the 21st century. Today, the Marina Bay area has become the new downtown with a stunning waterfront setting and a mix of office and commercial developments, a mega hotel and casino resort, high-rise luxury apartments, and gardens and parkland.

The East Coast Reclamation, which began in 1966, was carried out over seven phases spanning some 30 years. The project culminated in the creation of Marina Bay in the mid-2000s. In the background of this photograph taken in 1976 are the beginnings of the Marina Bay reclamation site taking shape, with the east coast in the far distance. © Urban Redevelopment Authority. All rights reserved.

To make this a reality, further reclamation was carried out around the bay between 1990 and 1992 to create an urban waterfront promenade. This 38-hectare project involved filling up Telok Ayer Basin as well as extending Collyer Quay and the shoreline of Marina South facing Marina Bay.

Other Reclamation Projects by HDB

While the east coast was being reclaimed, the HDB simultaneously carried out reclamation projects elsewhere on the island. In 1963, the reclamation of Kallang Basin began, with some 400 hectares of its swampland filled using earth taken from Toa Payoh. Completed in 1971, the site was used for public housing and industrial development.

Next, the HDB reclaimed a stretch along Singapore's west coast between 1976 and 1978 to create 89 hectares of land for the development of Clementi New Town. Along with it, the West Coast Highway was constructed to link Jurong with the eastern part of the island. The fill materials for this project were excavated from Clementi.

This was followed by several other reclamation projects: the addition of 44 hectares of land along the coast of Pasir Ris between 1979 and 1980, 277 hectares of swampland off Punggol between 1983 and 1986 as well as the reclamation of 685 hectares of foreshore and swampland along the northeast coast from Pasir Ris to Seletar between 1985 and 2001.

The latter included the reclamation of 155 hectares from the foreshore of Coney Island and Punggol. Fill materials for these projects were either imported or obtained from sites in Woodlands, Tampines, Pasir Ris, Yishun, Seletar and Zhenghua. Much of the new land was reserved for public housing and recreational purposes.

Additionally, the HDB embarked on reclamation projects for other government agencies. For instance, between 1990 and 1995, it reclaimed about 30 hectares of land in the north and northwest for the Ministry of Home Affairs to expand the Woodlands Checkpoint and construct the new Tuas Checkpoint respectively. The HDB also carried out reclamation works for the Singapore Tourism Board and Ministry of National Development on Pulau Ubin and the Southern Islands.

Between 1965 and 2015, the HDB reclaimed 3,869 hectares of land - roughly one third of the total reclaimed land on the island. The rest were overseen by two other government agencies, the Jurong Town Corporation (JTC) and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore.

New Lands for Industries: JTC

The reclamation projects undertaken by JTC in the west of the island were mainly for industries. The earliest project took place in 1963 to reclaim 46 hectares of land for the Jurong Industrial Site. This was followed by a string of reclamations in the 1970s that added over 2,000 hectares in Jurong and Tuas. These lands were used for the expansion of the industrial estate as well as for the construction of shipyards to support the marine sector. In the late 80s, the Tuas site was further extended by 650 hectares, and a golf course and a park subsequently added to inject some greenery to an otherwise industrial area.

JTC's reclamation works also extended to the islands off the southwestern coast. From the late 1980s, Pulau Bukom and Pulau Busing were enlarged, while Pulau Ayer Merbau, Pulau Seraya and Pulau Sakra were merged with the surrounding islets to provide new land. Most of these reclaimed islands were used for the petrochemical industry.

As the industry grew, JTC embarked on a reclamation scheme of mega proportions in 1993, merging seven southwestern islands - Pulau Merlimau, Pulau Ayer Chawan, Pulau Ayer Merbau, Pulau Seraya, Pulau Sakra, Pulau Pesek and Pulau Pesek Kecil - into a single entity called Jurong Island. The massive project was carried out in four stages at a cost of $6 billion. When completed in 2003, Jurong Island gave Singapore a substantial 3,000 hectares of new industrial space. Today, Jurong Island is home to more than 100 petroleum, petrochemical and speciality chemical companies.

New Lands for Infrastructure and Recreation: MPA

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) - formerly Port of Singapore Authority or PSA - reclaimed land primarily to develop the Port of Singapore and Changi Airport. Its earliest project took place in 1967 when 23 hectares of land were reclaimed to build Singapore's first container terminal at Keppel Harbour. The Tanjong Pagar Container Terminal opened in 1971 with three container berths.

PSA's reclamation works for Changi Airport began in 1975 when it supervised the reclamation of 745 hectares of land along Changi coast for the construction of the airport. The adjoining seabed provided the fill material. In 1990, another massive reclamation was carried out for the expansion of Changi Airport as well as for mixed-use developments in the area.

Since the first reclamation works began in 1822, Singapore's land area has expanded by almost 25 percent from 58,150 to 71,910 hectares. The areas shaded in pink indicate how much has been reclaimed thus far. The areas in red show possible plans for future reclamation and indicate how much of the island's original coastline may change by 2030 if these plans come to fruition. Map source: https://blogs.ntu.edu.sg/hp331-2014-10/?page_id=7

The plans were updated in 1998 - by which time PSA had been renamed MPA - to reclaim over 2,000 hectares of land at Changi East. About 820 hectares were allocated for the development of a fourth terminal and a third runway, while 125 hectares and 639 hectares were reserved for the Changi Naval Base and industries respectively. The reclamation was carried over five phases from 1992 to 2004.

Like HDB, the MPA has been helping other government agencies to reclaim islands around Singapore. Using dredged materials from ongoing reclamation projects, which would otherwise be dumped into the sea, public beaches and recreational waterfronts were created at the foreshore of the Southern Islands. On St John's Island, Lazarus Island, Sisters' Island and Kusu Island, facilities such as landing jetties, chalets, beach shelters and sanitary facilities were built on the reclaimed land. Over in Sentosa, reclaimed land has been used to build hotels and a golf course, and to create new beaches.

The Future

It is certain that land-scarce Singapore will press ahead with reclamation to meet the demands of its growing population in the foreseeable future. In the 2013 Land Use Plan, the Ministry of National Development has noted that there is a need to provide an additional 5,600 hectares of land by 2030. This is to accommodate the expected increase in population, rising from the present 5.7 million to between 6.5 and 6.9 million.

But there are limits to land reclamation - the rising cost of imported sand, the deleterious impact on the ecosystem and the encroachment of shipping lanes and territorial limits, among others. As an aggressive land reclamation programme is not tenable in the long term, Singapore is looking at other ways of maximising its land space; this includes the development of reserve land, intensifying land usage in new developments, and reusing and rezoning old industrial areas and golf courses for more productive purposes.

LAND RECLAMATION: HOW DOES IT WORK?

The proposed site for reclamation is first investigated to determine seabed conditions, availability of fill materials as well as the shape and alignment of the reclaimed area. Environmental studies are then carried out to assess the impact on water quality, water level, tidal flow, sedimentation and marine life.

Work proper begins with the erection of containment dykes made of sand and rock around the perimeter of the area to be reclaimed. Materials such as cut-hill soil, sand and clay are then transported from other sites to fill the enclosed area. The newly reclaimed land must be allowed to settle naturally over time before any structures can be built. In most cases, however, the process is speeded up with soil improvement methods.

Reclamation work taking place at Pasir Panjang. With rising costs and restrictions on sand exports placed by neighbouring countries, Singapore has turned to technology to try reduce the amount of sand needed for reclamation work. Photo by Ria Tan. Courtesy of WildSingapore.

Since the first reclamation project carried out in 1822, fill materials have traditionally comprised soil excavated from inland hills and sand dredged from surrounding seabeds. By the mid-1980s, however, these resources began to run out and Singapore had to import sand from neighbouring countries. This soon became a problem when the cost of foreign sand skyrocketed from less than $20 per sq m in the 1970s to $200 per sq m in the 90s. The situation hit crisis levels when Malaysia and Indonesia banned the export of sand to Singapore in 1997 and 2007 respectively.

Although Singapore had to turn to other countries for sand, it recently developed a more sustainable method that has reduced the amount of sand needed for reclamation works. Called empoldering, it has since been successfully deployed by the HDB for the on-going reclamation of Pulau Tekong.

Lim Tin Seng is a Librarian with the National Library, Singapore. He is the co-editor of Roots: Tracing Family Histories - A Resource Guide (2013); Harmony and Development: ASEAN-China Relations (2009) and China's New Social Policy: Initiatives for a Harmonious Society (2010). He is also a regular contributor to BiblioAsia.

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Land From Sand: Singapore's Reclamation Story

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Thanks to land reclamation, the tiny red dot has broadened its shores substantially. Lim Tin Seng discovers just how much...

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Themed “Recreation for All”, this park has something for everyone. Enjoy diverse recreational, sporting and dining activities alongside views of the sea.

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Poem about Kampung Padang Terbakar by Hafiza Talib who used to live there

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Poem about Kampung Padang Terbakar by Hafiza Talib who used to live there

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National Sailing Centre/ Singapore Sailing Federation

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National Sailing Centre/ Singapore Sailing Federation

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The Winning Run Begins

The Youth World Championship triumph kicked off a string of top results for Singapore's sailors in the later half of 2005. The new batch of Optimist sailors bagged both individual and team titles at the Asian Optimist Championships, and together with their more experienced seniors, achieved an unprecedented 7 gold medals at the SEA games in the Philippines.

The sailors maintained their good form into the new year and performed outstandingly to be the best team at the 2006 Asian Sailing Championships. Then in July, double victories in both the boys' and girls' divisions at the Byte and Laser 4.7 World Championships meant the crowning of four more champions.

The young Optimist sailors also proved their mettle by coming out tops at continental regattas like the IODA North and South American Championships and the IODA Asian Championships. At the end of the year, they also claimed 3 out of 4 titles at the Optimist World Championships.

It was the icing on the cake and topped off our spectacular medal haul at the Asian Games in Doha. We were not only the top sailing nation in Asia, but were well on our way to making our mark on the world stage; our sailors now undisputedly amongst the world's best at the youth and junior sailing levels, and Singapore recognised as one of the hotbeds for sailing development worldwide!

Sailing has become synonymous with sports excellence in Singapore. Out of the 25 Singaporean athletes sent to the 2016 Rio Olympics, 10 of them were sailors, a record-breaking amount - never in our young history have so many sailors competed in the biggest stage of sporting competition. But more importantly, sailors have inspired others in their wake.

The Singapore Sailing Team has since garnered more world titles and podium finishes at the ISAF Youth Worlds and other international events and some of these sailors have since embarked on Olympic campaigns towards Tokyo 2020.

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To make Singapore a great city to live, work and play.

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Ten years ago, the Marina Bay Sands was a construction site of gaping excavations and rising dunes of dirt. Thirty years before that, it was not quite sea, not quite land: transitioning from the former to the latter. And before that simply unbuildable sea. Since its independence in 1965, Singapore has grown from around 590 km2 to 720km 2 in 2014, reclaiming around 22% of its total ground area from the sea. Though correct in reference to the creation of land from where there was once ocean, reclamation is an odd word: it appears to imply that Singapore is retrieving something from the sea, -claiming what was already its own, when it has in fact been building land where land had never existed before.

Singapore sees itself as chronically undersized: it imagines itself as a larger country, and works backwards: materialising the necessary geographical puzzle pieces to suit the demands of the global economy as much as to satiate its own needs. Space is not merely flexible, but hypothetical. Sites of reclamation are symbolic of and symbiotic with the State's agenda of modernity which, as it shifts its focus from one productive phase of accumulation to another, construct temporal and economic inequalities through these new landscapes of power.

The reasons given for land reclamation are usually pragmatic; housing, ports, landfills, petrochemical plants - all kinds of infrastructure. The term even extends to the over-engineered starchitecture of the Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort. Land reclamation has been Singapore's key strategic infrastructure used to anticipate future trends in the global economy, constructing space for an upgraded port at Tuas, or reserving hectares around the Marina Bay site itself for future development of the Central Business District whilst Singapore grows as a finance centre.

With the Urban Redevelopment Authority projecting an additional 100km 2 of land to be reclaimed by 2030, the question of what and who the space is for will only become more urgent. The State's definition of 'pragmatism' fortifies this urgency, shifting with the increasingly delirious whims of the global economy. Enter the Marina Bay Sands, one of the most recent and most notorious realizations of the State's 'pragmatism'. The Integrated Resort of the Marina Bay Sands is free to access for tourists. For Singaporean citizens and permanent residents, you need to pay a $100 levy to gain entry for 24 hours, or $1000 for a one-year period.

In a national day speech in 2005, touching upon the presence of a casino on Singapore's shores (which then seemed unlikely), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stated that ' we are not considering a casino, but an IR-an integrated resort ', and that 'an IR is one significant idea we must consider, that will help us reinvent Singapore'. In one fell swoop, the cognitive dissonance of admitting the construction of casinos by rebranding them as 'IRs' was superseded by the overarching need to reinvent Singapore on the world stage and gain a competitive edge over other global cities like Sydney, New York, and London.

Though a far cry from the landmark monumentality of the Marina Bay Sands and Gardens by the Bay , a cursory look at the East Coast Reclamation scheme that began in 1965 reveals the tension inherent to this tool of national-building: the pragmatic rationalisation and realisation of space bears traces of the undesirable and discordant narratives it sought to suppress. The East Coast reclamation provided a public park and beachfront (where before there were private properties and swimming clubs, which the government then bought using laws of Compulsory Purchase), and extensive Housing Development Board (HDB) estates that would go on to form 'New Towns'. Kampong dwellers (kampong: Malay for village) living in squalid conditions without plumbing or electricity and under constant threat of flooding and fire were gradually relocated to the initial HDB flats as they were built (though for each story of a fire spreading in a kampong, there exist apocryphal accounts of thugs hired by the government throwing burning torches onto attap roofs). The spectral threat of communists spreading dissent and slander in kampongs gave the government additional license to relocate their residents. Marine Parade was the first housing estate in the world to be built entirely on reclaimed land, and its initial phase was completed in 1973.

This relocation strategy worked, for the most part. Resettled kampong dwellers thought that the flats would fall back into the sea, saw cracks in the pavement as a sure sign of impending doom. What the resettlement was actually a sign of was the HDB's success in rehousing a nation and the People's Action Party's successful consolidation of power. HDB flats can be bought using a Singaporean's Central Provident Fund, the government's mandatory savings programme, which helped put 90% of Singaporeans in HDB flats by the 1980s. However, what this has meant is that, as Singapore has ascended GDP per capita rankings and its property prices have skyrocketed, lower-income citizens have had to work for longer to pay off their mortgage.

As a nascent nation-state, the transition from one standard of living to an incomparably superior one was wrought through the government's consolidation of its power to shape the literal and figurative horizons of its citizens, offering a new set of expectations between state and citizen.

One night, I was out by the Bedok Jetty on the East Coast; I met Fook Yang, a man in his sixties who grew up in a coastal kampong and was relocated to Marine Parade after the reclamation had been completed. His previous neighbourhood had been erased. When I approached him he had been waiting for a good catch for hours with old friends from the kampong, and told me that the fish here never recovered after the reclamation. He told me that at first, he thought it would only take ten years to pay off his flat; as Marine Parade became a more desirable area to live in, the property prices rose with the influx of more affluent Singaporeans and migrants, it had become clear it would take fifteen years to pay off his debt. Then twenty. Then thirty. The beach he grew up on no longer exists, where the land met the water is now the three-lane Marine Parade Road. Economic inequality is cloaked in the government's spatial and temporal sleight of hand: no coastline to memorialize, no loss to mourn, no memory to pass on to the next generation. These details simply become features of Singapore's successful economic model, with a majority of winners and a minority of losers (but with the terms of that success dictated by the State, of course).

You can walk around Bedok, a nearby area, and see road names like Telok Kurau, meaning 'mango fish bay', which gives memorial to the fact that five decades ago this is where people fished. Forensic clues are littered throughout Marine Parade, small traces of the original seam where it was stitched onto the original coastline, edges where the puzzle piece doesn't quite fit: the original sea-level height of this public park cowers beneath the metre of built of cement where the road is, where the reclaimed land starts. If it does start there.

Marine Parade now is indistinguishable from any other old HDB estate in Singapore; it is quiet, a little grey, but equally serene, woozy with trees, a place where people live. Old residents of Marine Parade still remember this place as a series of desolate mud and sand flats, the conveyor belt of dirt that turned nearby hills into fill material for reclamation, flattening Bedok and Tanah Merah, the wind picking up and spreading dust over everything. Or the abundance of the fish along that coast, before the reclamation dredging stirred up enough silt to ward off any marine life, and the increasing number of tankers in the Strait ensured no such aquatic population would return. But it is not possible to recognise any of this from the place itself. By all appearances, this sleight of land has succeeded: it is ordinary.Though to those who were excluded by this literal act of nation-building the land is anything but ordinary; fishermen who never quite found their feet on reclaimed land, communities uprooted and rerouted from their seaside kampong to HDBs further afield in Tampines or Bedok. But any attempt to acknowledge this erased heritage is quashed by the obvious, official truths: of course, it's much better, more hygienic, more convenient, to live like this.It is acceptable, of course, that some things had to be sacrificed to achieve this level of success.

But as Singapore continues to intensify its development, with land reclamation stretching far into the future, the question of who the space is for in such a land-starved country looms ever-larger. This will become more important for Marine Parade as an ironic hypothetical future brews on the horizon: the East Coast could become a site for land reclamation again . In this scenario, the future beachfront would become host to luxury waterside condominiums mirroring the preceding redevelopment of the Tanjong Pagar and Pasir Panjang port terminals into a sprawling 1,000 hectare waterfront destination . The legacy of land reclamation could then come full circle: private waterfront properties compulsorily purchased by the state to reclaim land for public housing; infrastructure and parks could be reclaimed again for high-value private accommodation. Though unlike the case of the colonial and local elites who used to own coastal properties or frequent the swimming clubs, it would be commons becoming dispossessed (and unlike those elites before them, the public would not be generously compensated for the loss of another coastline). All of this depends on what demands the State will need to satisfy in the future (as per the number of reserved sites specified in the Ministry of National Development's projected 2030 land use plan ); but what is certain is that it will need more space to satisfy them.

The technical process of land reclamation forms an eerily specific analogy to the socioeconomic contestation over space and memory in Singapore it constructs: a section of sea is isolated by perimeter bund; sand and dirt are poured in. The water is squeezed out by the pressure of fill material. To enable building on reclaimed land, the level of the settlement must be kept to a minimum; that is, the amount of water present in the composition of the soil. Prefabricated vertical drains draw out the settlement through weep holes much quicker than it would drain naturally, hastening the process from years to months. The importance of water changes in scale: from where there was once an entire sea to fend off, the presence of a few millimetres could now compromise the structural integrity of an entire land mass. Comparably, because of the overwhelming nature of Singapore's land reclamation projects, with their PAP-prescribed scripts of visionary master-planning and cool pragmatism, any hint of subversion or contradiction threatens the order that constitutes it ; nothing so mighty as to be sea-like is required.

Across from Marine Parade is East Coast Park, the public face of Singapore's land reclamation programme. According to public record, Lee Kuan Yew (the founding father of the nation) wanted to gift this park to the people, to give everyone access to the beachfront that was formerly private and partitioned. According to a few rogue NUS academics, the land reclamation technique that was implemented in the area was imperfect; if they built anything on it, the ground would have turned to mush.

Whether you believe state-sanctioning truth or academic gossip, East Coast Park is quite a sight. People lie on the beach, watch the waves come in, or sit on a breakwater with a fishing rod and cast their lines at the tankers that clot the horizon; these serving as a reminder of the immense global flows that sluice in and out of this tiny city-state every single day. But here another hidden trace of land reclamation is revealed: the breakwaters like the one pictured above are used all the way up the coast. A few years ago, a popular cycle track in the park was closed because the sea was eroding the path. For environmental protection groups and disgruntled citizens, this seemed like the beginning of the sea's fight to finally reclaim what was rightfully its own. But according to Professor Chou Loke Ming, a marine scientist at the National University of Singapore, what people thought was erosion was in fact natural coastal formation; the initial reclamation of East Coast Park hadn't properly modelled the beach against the flows of the tide, so the tide picked up the slack, and formed the beach properly. A memory of a coastline is identified as a threat, an erosion, when it is simply a return, a heritage manifesting itself. In a place eternally short on space, you find monuments in unlikely gestures.
Top image: Jurong Island land reclamation in Singapore. Photo via Deme Group.

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In Conquering the Sea, Singapore Erases Its History - Failed Architecture

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Short on space, the city-state has since its independence been reclaiming land to build the nation and to rewrite 'unhygienic' episodes of its history...

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Mr Lim said the Changi spot was discovered around 2000 by a friend of his who was a lifeguard in the area, and they dubbed it "Longkang Point" after a large drain beside it. This was the first year Mr Lim has surfed here - thanks to COVID-19.

"We try to make the best out of it ... You can feel the positive vibe because, especially now during COVID, everybody's quite stressed out. Surfing is a good stress reliever," he said.

Mr Khairul Anuar, a member of the Surfing Association of Singapore who has surfed there for many years, said that he has mixed feelings about their "playground" becoming an open secret due to social media.

While he was happy that there are so many people interested in surfing, he is also worried that too many people may be going to the surf spot, and that the newcomers may be unaware of the possible dangers.

As they are at the mouth of a large drain, there are rip currents which can sweep people out to sea, he said. They have also spotted dangerous wildlife in the area.

"You must remember you are in the ocean, so there are stingrays ... There were also reports of stonefish and jellyfish," he said, adding that surfers should wear their leashes, which attach them to their boards, for added safety.
Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram

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Surf's up in Singapore: Rare waves at Changi draw surfers unable to travel for their sport

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SINGAPORE: Just off the coast of Changi, a line of surfers and windsurfers were out catching the waves and the wind on a sunless Wednesday afternoon (Jan 13).While this spot near the National Service Resort & Country Club has been known to surfers in Singapore for decades, it is not usually

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Photos, maps, oral history accounts, etc, of Singapore over time

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Home - Archives Online - National Archives of Singapore

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Range of resources

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OneSearch: Find and get resources from libraries, archives and museums in Singapore. Books, eJournals, images, AV material, records and papers, physical objects and more from One Search by National Library Board NLB.

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Pictures and info

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A Digital Reference Collection for Singapore

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You can overlay maps of same area over time

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National University of Singapore Libraries

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Historical Maps of Singapore, digitised by Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

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Historical Maps of Singapore, digitised by Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

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This channel has collection of my video recording of bird calls/songs/sounds from Singapore. There are 3 playlists to choose 1. Residents
2. Migrants
3. All

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The Singapore Birds Project is a collaborative project by birders to document all the bird species that have been recorded in Singapore and its surrounding coastal waters. These include residents, migrants, vagrants as well as those that were introduced to the island. While Singapore is a country with a small land mass, we live in a region of great biodiversity. There are about 400 birds that have been historically recorded in our bird checklist. A further 100 or so species of introduced/released birds have also been recorded.

We have two main aims. The first is to introduce readers to Singapore's bird species by describing their appearance, behaviour, habitat, and other key features. While there are commercially available guide books, apps and even existing websites that provide most of this information, our approach is to cater to the widest possible audience while being non-commercial in nature. We intend to showcase the best pictures and videos of all the species and create awareness on the great diversity of birds in our presence.

Separately, we're working to document rare species by compiling all their records along with references to relevant primary literature. Your submissions of rare bird records will contribute greatly in this effort. This work, along with any other data-related projects we embark on in the future, is accessible at our secondary page, records.singaporebirds.com.

This project is not affiliated to any group or organization. Everyone is encouraged to contribute.

The bird species write-up index is at the Singapore Bird List menu item, the downloadable Excel checklist is at the Downloads section, and the contributor list is at Contributors section.

Recent Posts

Our first Monthly Roundup - March 2022 - We've been getting a lot of great birds lately, all thanks to the enthusiastic contributions of birders in Singapore, so we thought now was as good a time to start publishing monthly bird roundups, summarizing records of rare and scarce species locally over the past month. This is the first one, for March 2022! ⠀

Exploring birds on this day in history - Drawing on our collection of nearly 1,500 records and counting, our new "On this day" page highlights past records on this day in history, accompanied by details and photos where possible. ⠀

Our first guided walk! - Our first series of guided walks at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park on 13 and 19 March! We had a total of five groups with one guide each (with proper safe distancing!) and encountered cool species including nice Javan Pond Herons in breeding plumage. A huge thank you to all participants for attending, hope all of you had fun. Watch this... ⠀

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The Singapore Birds Project is a collaborative project by birders to document all the bird species that have been recorded in Singapore and its surrounding coastal waters. These include residents, migrants, vagrants as well as those that were introduced to the island. While Singapore is a country with a small land mass, we live in...

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Dianella ensifolia, also known as Flax Lily, is a perennial herb that is native to Singapore. It is commonly found in forests and along rocky shores and forms grassy clumps of long sword-shaped leaves. Flower spikes bear white, yellow or light purplish blue star-shaped flowers that are followed by glossy bluish purple berries. The striking fruit are thought to be toxic. In parts of Southeast Asia, the plant parts are used in traditional medicine to treat skin infections, parasitic worms, wounds and fatigue.

The Malayan Horned Frog has a snout that is distinctly pointed and horn-like skin flaps present above the eyes, giving it excellent camouflage on the forest floors of the Central Nature Reserves, where they are confined to in Singapore. It has a loud call that sounds like a metallic honk.

Versatility of Simpoh Air

Simpoh Air is a free-flowering large shrub that produces striking large yellow flowers, which only last for a day. When ripe, its fruit splits open revealing seeds encased in a fleshy red aril and enjoyed by birds. Did you know that this pioneer species has a trove of versatile uses? Its deep taproot allows it to access underground water sources, and its presence could sometimes indicate groundwater sources. This quick-growing plant creates shade in otherwise barren environments, supporting the growth of shade-loving species and promoting the diversity and development of forests. Simpoh Air's large waxy leaves are also traditionally used in Peninsular Malaysia to wrap and contain food like tempeh.

Versatility of Simpoh Air

Waterlily or Lotus?

Did you know that Waterlily and Lotus are different plant species? Waterlilies belong to the genus Nymphaea and their leaves are typically found on the water's surface, while Lotuses belong to the genus Nelumbo and their leaves are held on stalks that can extend up to 2 m above water. Additionally, waterlily leaves are often deeply notched with some having purple, yellow or white variegation, while lotus leaves are completely circular and green.

The 3 Musketeers and the Fourth

Did you know that there is not 1 but 3 species of Resam ( Dicranopteris sp.) in Singapore? They are namely D. curranii, D. linearis var. linearis and D. subpectinata. Often found growing together along forest edges and exposed grounds, the sprawling ferns are fast-growing which form large dense bushes known as thickets. Another species that looks similar and is often mistaken to be a Resam is Sticherus truncatus. It can be distinguished by its fully foliated branching while the branching of Resam species remain bare.

Tasty Tamarind

Did you know the Tamarind tree is the source of Asam commonly used in Southeast Asian cooking? Part of the legume family (Fabaceae), the tree can be found along the streets of Singapore. The mildly fragrant flowers are pollinated by insects and develop into bean pods. Within the fruit is the tasty pulp, prized for its complex and sour flavour, giving dishes their characteristic Asam taste. Outside of Asia it is a component in the renowned Worcestershire sauce. The Tamarind tree is hardy and long lived, making it an ideal urban tree. There are currently three individuals in Singapore that have been registered as Heritage Trees!

Tasty Tamarind

A Fern or not a Fern?

Did you know the Common Tassel Fern ( Phlegmariurus phlegmaria) grouped under Fern allies are not ferns at all? Fern allies or Lycophytes are the earliest group of seedless vascular plants with a wide range of growth forms. Fern allies are versatile plants, some even have the ability to survive desert conditions! Fern allies are identified by their small leaves or microphylls that come with a single unbranched vein whereas true ferns have megaphylls with complex, branched veinlets. Similar to most Lycophytes, the Common Tassel Fern produces cone-like structures at the tips of their stems known as strobili - these contain and release spores upon maturity.

Sunda Pangolin

Video of wild Sunda Pangolin in Singapore, captured on Night Vision Equipment.

Flora & Fauna News

Rediscovery of Singapore Natives

Indian Abutilon (Abutilon indicum), a native shrub thought to be nationally extinct was rediscovered on Coney Island. Its subspecies, A. indicum subsp. indicum was found on Coney Island, an area predominated by Casuarina (Casuarina equisetifolia) trees. Similarly, Cyperus dubius, a sedge rediscovered in various local coastal parks in 2022 was also found among Casuarina groves. Casuarina trees are known to release allelopathic compounds that inhibit seed germination, this poses a barrier for the survival of rare native species that share the same habitat. As such, conservative measures like selective replacement with non-allelopathic native species can potentially aid the survival and regeneration of these rediscovered Singapore natives.

Gesneriaceae Treasures - Vietnam's Newest Finds

In recent years, several new species of flowering plants have been discovered in Vietnam, particularly in the far north and the Central Highlands region. Notably, four Gesneriaeae species have been uncovered, namely, lithophytic Allocheilos villosus with dense hairs covering on all parts of the plant, Didymocarpus tamdaoensis which is only known from one collection made at Tam Dao National Park, Didymocarpus dalatensis with downy stems and white tubular flowers, and Loxostigma vietnamensis which is endemic to the montane forest of Vietnam. These discoveries deepen our understanding of Vietnam's rich biodiversity.

Identifying Pathogenic Fungi to Protect Mature Trees

A collaboration between NParks and researchers across Singapore has identified pathogenic fungi that attack mature trees in our urban landscape. The DNA sequence of tissue samples from trees with rot, the fungal fruiting bodies and surrounding soil were analysed for unique patterns associated to individual fungal species. By comparing the results with healthy trees, 17 fungal species that cause root and trunk rot in commonly planted tree species were identified. This information leads the way for development of early detection and intervention tools of fungal disease in trees.

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Dorm B Lower

Low E: Pole and Tyre

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Name adjective game

Using name, choose an adjective to describe youself.

Introduce yourself

After one round, intro yourself and the ones before you.

Restart if there is a mistake

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Dragon slayer

Beauty and beast

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0830-1030:

Ice breakers n goal setting: at lower Dorm E

Teambuilding: Nitro crossing / Horizontal spiderweb

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When do SOAEs leave the groups to do re-use check for HE?

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Low element - pole and tyre

Bring out the tyre out of pole and put back the tyre

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Stories of Changi Coast while on the water.

This is after framing participants to be observant about their surroundings.

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Ice breaker: Act out their names

Team building: Teepee shuffle at low e or at lower dorm A

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Group 2, 5, 6 Kayak activity 2 at between breakwater 25 and 26

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Group 2, 5, 6 Kayak activity 2 at between breakwater 25 and 26

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A-Z

Find items around the beach that starts with the letters A to Z.

Which items belong to nature and which don't?

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Group 2, 5, 6 Kayak activity 3 at beach up area outside OBS between breakwater 22 and 21

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Group 2, 5, 6 Kayak activity 3 at beach up area outside OBS between breakwater 22 and 21

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Build beautiful sandcastle within a given time.

Tell story of the original inhabitants who had to leave their homes.

Smash their sandcastles and get participants to speak about their feelings.

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PRP activity 1 - nature bingo card given at start of journey

PRP activity 2 - NWR after passing double jetty

PRP activity 3 - snack, pick up something, NJ near breakwater 28, lamp post number H2-3 59

Challenge: cannon ball back after NJ (friend is injured, bring "friend"(collation of bags) back on groundsheet)

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All groups do experience map for gallery walk

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All groups do experience map for gallery walk

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PRP Activity #1: INIWIRMO aka (I notice I wonder It reminds me of). Brief group to get them started on noticing and being more aware of their surrounding. GFs give an eg. and get those ready to share along the way.

PRP Activity #2: Nature journaling (Can tap on flora and fauna cards to intro) / Web of life

PRP Activity #3: Pick up resources from the area to build a mini shelter

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Ice breaking

1, 2, 3

Knee tag

FVC

What is US and Not US?

TB

Human Knot

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Nsrcc

UTS

Interstellar

Iniwirmo

Forbidden forest

Nature Journal

Bonus: cannonball challenge

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Strandline activity

Build what you pick up

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Where am I? (Icebreaker)

On the ground, make a map of Singapore using the rope.

Qn1: Stand at where you grew up in (baby till 20s). Share with everyone what is one memorable experience you have of that place.

Qn 2: Stand at where you are currently residing in. Share one difference that you between your old neighbourhood and the current one.

Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes.... BOTTLE! (Energizer)

Each of them will think and prepare 1 energizer to conduct throughout the camp.

Framing and expectation setting

Qiji Cards

To frame, a safe space, to understand what they are apprehensive about and what they hope to achieve. Share with the group so that the group can assist one another.

Qn1: Pick a card that best describe your feelings at this current moment. Share.

Qn2: What are some of your worries about the camp?

Qn3: What do you hope to bring back tomorrow?

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Show them the 3 different stations. Possibly hear from them their understanding of agency. Ask them what they want to achieve from the station that they selected.

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Group 1 Trip Planning + Trip to Campsite

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Group 1 Trip Planning + Trip to Campsite

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Trip Planning

Uncover what they have learnt in NIE

Uncover what they know.

Categorize accordingly to Safety, Navigation and Logistic preparation.

Share with them the parameters and what they will be doing for tonight and tomorrow. Have them pack their bags accordingly.

Trip to Campsite

Activity 1 --> UTS (@ NSRCC) + Raintree

Activity 2 --> Nature Journaling

Sub activity --> Nature Bingo + Birds and insect brochure

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Group 1 @ Campsite + Night Activity + Solo Morning

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Group 1 @ Campsite + Night Activity + Solo Morning

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Upon reaching campsite...

Share with them the parameters and boundaries. Consider doing some RAMs exercises depending on the energy level of the pax. Expose them to trangia (by demo/ doing it together with them) and give them options for them to cook their dinner.

Night Activity

Night exploration......

Solo Morning

Refer to Solo Morning paper