- Reclaim Land by Landfill Method
Land reclamation is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds (landfill). The landfill method is used to reclaim land from the coast and the swamps in Singapore.It is also used in reclamation works involving the merging of islands. One such project is the amalgamation of Pulau Sakra and Pulau Bakau into one big island called Pulau Sakara, which is ten times the size of the two former islands.
Large-scale land reclamation has been undertaken in different parts of Singapore since the 1960s. In the early years, the fill materials evacuated from the hills in Bedok, Siglap, Tampines and Jurong were used for filling the reclamation areas. In recent years, sea sand obtained from the seabed is the main source of fill materials for reclamation. The reclamation contractors import the sea sand from the neighbouring countries such as Indonesia.
Land reclamation has modified the coastline of Singapore, extending it seawards, especially on the eastern, north-eastern and western parts of the island, and changing it quite beyond recognition. Large coastal areas have also been starightened by the building dykes across estuaries, particularly in the west coast across the estuaries of Tengeh, Poyan, Murai and Sarimbun. Many offshore islands have become larger.
The projects sometimes involve some of the smaller islands being merged together through land reclamation in order to form larger, more functional islands, such as in the case of Jurong Island.
Current and future reclamation will add more changes to the configuration of Singapore. Some of the large-scale reclamation works are:
- a long island off the east coast and the length of which will stretch from near Marina East to Changi for waterfront housing and recreational development and roads,
- Pulau Tekong and Pulau Ubin for housing and some industrial development when Singapores population exceeds four million and
- Pulau Serangoon and Punggol Point which will be reclaimed for quality housing.
Advantages of land reclamation: - Land reclamation will definitely increase land area for Singapore. With more land to meet the growing population's demand, more buildings, infrastructure and recreational facilities can be built. Land reclamation is used to build Marina Bay, which is the location of Integrated Resorts, financial centres and the Singapore Flyer, a ferris wheel.
- The world-famous Changi Airport is also built on reclaimed land. One of the seaports is also located on reclaimed land. East Coast Park which consists of a park, a man-made beach and housing, is also situated on Singapore's largest scale reclaimed land. Reclaimed land is also present on neighboring islands for housing, industry and many more purposes.
- The creation of new land is for the need of human activities to cater for expanding commercial and industrial activities and transport needs, the latest of which include roads, expressways, the Mass Rapid Transit System, the port and airport facilities.
Disavantages of land reclamation:
- Land reclamation can be damaging to corals and marine life. Corals are usually moved to another place when land is to be reclaimed. The corals might not be able to survive in that certain habitat, and thus die out. In some countries, where the project is large-scale, they do not even bother to re-plant the corals elsewhere, instead just reclaim the land on their habitat, causing them to die out immediately.
- Marine life, such as fishes, might not have enough food after the underwater plantations are destroyed due to reclamation of land. This applies to the food chain.
- The waters might also be polluted from the soil used to reclaim land, causing the fishes to die and blocking out sunlight, depriving the underwater plants of growth.
- Land reclamation requires a large amount of sand which is not available in Singapore. Thus, our supply of sand usually come from some off-shore islands of Indonesia. However, Indonesia has just banned the export of sand to Singapore because our demand for sand has damaged their environment due to excessive digging into the ground for sand.
- Territorial boundaries of Malaysia and Indonesia can be threatened if we keep increasing the land size of Singapore by land reclamation towards these countries.
- We are unable to reclaim too far out into the Eastern side of Singapore (e.g. Changi) because the reclaimed land will be constructed too far out into the open sea. It will be subjected to the destructive forces of waves and even natural disasters such as Tsunami.
Land management through land use planning is important so as to maximise existing land use.
