The Coast

Singapore may not be on the map of global surfing destinations, but that didn’t stop some enthusiastic souls from hitting the waves at NSRCC beach

Though the meter-or-so waves were not enough to perform water barrel stunts, they were enough for some brief breaking and a good chance for children to give it a try. The surfers told reporters they have been camping there every afternoon since Sunday in hope the waves would swell to meet their dried-up boards.

Strong winds blowing in the right direction built swells on one part of the waters off Changi, creating a rare opportunity for surfers to catch a rare ride

Best time to Surf will be during the windy months of the monsoon from December to January.

Its only possible here at NSRCC because of the shallow beach that stretches 100m out from shore. this Allows seizable waves to form over the shallow sand banks

You can signup for windsurfing courses at constant wind sailing club. $300+ or sailing course for $400+

Or better yet, for $129, we will teach you how to sail on our new kayak sailing tours (Seadogs)

This is a great place to learn sailing as all the wind from the flat airport funnel into the small opening between the trees, thus creating a constant source of wind, even on non windy days.

Our ancestors found that the South China sEa had very reliable wind roads. These roads were called trade winds, trade being the Middle English word for 'track' or 'path'. The trade winds were so important for the English fleet and economy that the name 'trade' became generally accepted to mean (foreign) commerce'.

In the past, traders from China would sail down during the southwest monsoon wind (last quarter of the year) to trade in Singapore, and sail back during the northeast monsoon winds.

You would be surprised how many terms and sayings we use every day originate from sailing. This applies to the term “feeling blue” as well. We know that if you feel blue, you actually mean that you feel sad or depressed. So it is actually very logical that the saying originated from sailing because in the past, when a ship lost its captain during a voyage, the sailors would sail blue flags, indicating their loss. So if you’re feeling blue, you’re actually referring to the blue flags that were used to sign that the ship’s crew is in mourning.

Story: life of a National Athlete, some of our national athlete trains at constant wind, if are not number 1 or number 2 in your sports, you wont get any funding from the government or private sector. So you many of the staff at the Passion Waves Kayaking School and constant winds are/were our national athlete.

Some athlete gets private scholarship from accounting firms, around 20k to 30k to fund their asian games/olympic journey. The good thing is, when they retire from national sports, they have a job waiting for them with that private firm. (Deloitte)

Land reclamation: Singapore's land area has expanded by a whopping 25 percent since colonial times: From 580 to 720 square km.

The five towers of the Marina Bay Financial Center, Marina Bay Sands Gardens by the Bay are all built on reclaimed land; so is an assortment of parks, wharves and a coastal highway. Beach Road, in the island’s belly, at one time had a self-evident name; now it reads like a wry joke, given how much new land separates it from the ocean. Most of Singapore’s Changi Airport sits on earth where there was once only water

For Curving Coast line: Changi airport, Laguna country club , NSRCC, Tanah Merah Country club was all built on reclaimed land.

East Coast was built mostly with sand from Tampines, most of the craters are filled up now, except for one, Bedok Reservoir

Several countries have tired of feeding Singapore’s endless appetite for sand; Indonesia, Malaysia and, most recently, Cambodia have halted exports altogether. These bans have affected some of Singapore’s reclamation schedules, David Tan said, although he insisted that the supply lines from Myanmar were “still robust.” In any case, Singapore is trying to shrink its reliance on sand imports. “We do a lot of tunneling work for the subway, so that material goes into reclamation,

As the ocean grows less shallow, it becomes harder and harder to build the wall, to stabilize the infill, to protect it all from collapse. “We’re already reclaiming in water that is 20 meters deep,” Tan said. “Maybe it would be viable to reclaim in 30 meters, if land prices go up. But 40 and 50 meters would be very difficult. It’s physically difficult and economically unviable.”

Singapore holds a strategic sand reserve, for emergencies. It lies somewhere in the area called Bedok

Breakwater along east coast beach is built to protect the artificial beach, if not, it will erodes away.

In recent years, Singapore has turned to a Dutch reclamation method called empoldering (building a seawall and pumping the water out) that can save 40 per cent in sand volume and construction costs, said Mr Wong, The method is being used in Pulau Tekong, which is set to grow by 810 ha, or the size or Toa Payoh, by 2022. The added land will be used for military training, freeing up space on the mainland - in Tengah - for housing.

Breakwater is another measure of coastal protection. Breakwaters are strutures, which usually made of granite, built parallel to the coast but off shore.

Breakwater creates a zone of shallow water between itself and the coast, so that waves will break against it before reaching the coast. Thus as the waves reach the coast line, the waves energy will be largly reduced by the breakwaters thereby protect the coast from erosion. Thus it is an effective measuere of coastal protection.

In the other hand, breakwaters are expensive to build, the cost of each breakwater is estimated to be around S$1 million, hence some less developed countries may be unable to afford it. Secondly, breakwaters are unable to provide complete protection due to the gaps between it and the coast. Thus erosion may still occur.

The purpose of a sea wall is to protect areas of human habitation, conservation and leisure activities from the action of tides, waves, or tsunamis.

This seawall protected Tanah Merah ferry terminal from choppy waves caused by strong winds, this makes it easier for the ferry to berth safely.

Vertical seawalls are built in particularly exposed situations. These reflect wave energy. Under storm conditions a non-breaking standing wave pattern can form, resulting in a stationary clapotic wave which moves up and down but does not travel horizontally. These waves promote erosion at the toe of the wall and can cause severe damage to the sea wall. In some cases, piles are placed in front of the wall to lessen wave energy slightly. Which are perfect hiding places for fishes, which is why the wall is such a great fishing location.

Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal with has regular ferry service to the Indonesia (Batam & Bintan), as well as Sebana Cove and Tanjung Pengelih in Malaysia.

It is a mere 45 to 70 minutes ferry ride from Singapore to Batam and vice versa

The terminal was built to promote and service passenger commuters for the “growth triangle” of Indonesia Bintan Island, Malaysia Johor and Singapore.

The Malay name for this area is derived from the red lateritic cliffs along the coast that were visible from the sea, hence the name Tanah Merah or "red land”.

When land reclamation works began in the early 1970s, most of the coastal hills were levelled and dumped into the sea to create the present East Coast. The East Coast Parkway was constructed almost completely on reclaimed land. The location of Tanah Merah Kechil cliff is where Temasek Primary School now stands

Singapore Cruise Centre's (SCC) Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal (TMFT) will become Singapore's first solar-powered ferry terminal.

Sunseap said it will develop a 650-kilowatt-peak solar photovoltaic system that will be placed atop the ferry terminal, enabling TMFT to fulfil about one-third of its daytime energy requirements.

This comes hot on the heels of this year’s Budget announcement on the implementation of a carbon tax of between S$10 and S$20 per tonne on greenhouse gas emissions, starting 2019.

The Budget measures also include a restructuring of diesel taxes and new incentive schemes to encourage the use of cleaner vehicles.

Solar energy, the environmentally friendlier and potentially cheaper alternative to electricity fired by coal or natural gas, costs up to 15 per cent less than conventional electricity, according to industry experts.

A Bangladeshi works on construction sites earns about $720 a month, most of which they send back home.

Good: Employers pay the bills - $220 per month for a bed and a locker. The workers' laundry and cleaning are done for them.

There's also a well-equipped gym and a cricket pitch. At night the men watch the latest Bollywood movies on a large outdoor screen. There's even a view of the sea.

But for the residents there is a trade-off. While they enjoy better facilities here, they give up some privacy.

The workers, who sleep 12 to a room, are free to come and go as they please. But the dorm is about as far from the city centre as you can get.

We hear the government talking about having a better relationship with foreign workers, but we see them housed in these far off places and it looks like a type of apartheid.”

Story: how Covid19 became so bad in the dormitories, we wanted to keep the workers as far away from the general population as possible (the little india riots). The workers goes to the city centre to buy ‘cheap’ stuff. Causing an over capacity of people in the little India area.

To prevent that, we needed to bring the stores that can sell ‘cheap’ goods from Little India into the workers dormitories. For that to work, you need volume, which is why we created Mega dorms which hold over 13,000 thousands worker in one compound.

13,000 people staying in a confined space is the ideal breeding ground for Covid19.

Gambling problem: It is also to make it difficult for them to go to the casinos as there have been a spike in workers losing all their money there. (entry is free for them, not Singaporeans)

Even though the number of Covid-19 cases has fallen considerably among the migrant worker population, Mr Wong said that the "circumstances in the dormitories" are such that they remain places where a single case could spread to many other workers.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had also said in a BBC broadcast on March 14 that it is too much of a risk to have migrant workers from dormitories mixing freely with the general population, as Covid-19 is still circulating in Singapore.

Mr Wong also noted that some measures have already been relaxed, with workers allowed to spend more time at recreational centres that have been purpose-built for them.

Workers who have been fully vaccinated will be tested every 28 days instead of every 14 days under the current guidelines.

The Republic’s fifth NEWater plant in Changi officially opened on Wednesday (Jan 18), enabling NEWater to now to meet 40 per cent of Singapore’s total daily water demand, as concern over water supply grows.

It is the third "tap" in the "Four National Taps" strategy to provide Singapore with a sustainable and diversified supply of water.2 The other three taps are water from local catchments, imported water from Malaysia and desalinated water.

the water levels of Johor's Linggiu Reservoir, which enables Singapore to draw water for import, have fallen from 80 per cent in early 2015 to 20 per cent in October last year, before making a "slow recovery" to the current 27 per cent. The situation has been made worse by the "frequent and prolonged" dry weather.

NEWater is produced from treated used water (sewage include) that is further purified using advanced membrane technologies and ultraviolet disinfection.

In partnership with PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, the latest NEWater plant is the first built by a foreign-local consortium, comprising BEWG International, a subsidiary of Beijing Enterprises Water Group Limited, and UES Holdings. It began operations in November last year. 

Here’s how much the latest NEWater plant cost to build: a whopping $170 million.

It’s as big as 7.5 football fields and can produce 50 million gallons of water per day for 25 years.

For those who can’t get over the fact that we’re basically drinking sewage water, here’s something to put your mind at ease.

NEWater has a different taste to it. (we got to try it when i was in P5, national day goody bag, i hated the taste)

Here’s what PUB has to say about NEWater: It’s clearer, has lesser organisms and cleaner than PUB water, which WHO(world health organisation) says is safe for consumption from the tap.

For household consumption, NEWater is used to “top up” to the reservoir and undergo the usual treatment process before getting channelled to your home.

This means the NEWater that you get is double treated. So don’t worry.

NEWater is mainly used for industries, it means that most of the time, we don’t get to drink NEWater.

Only when there’s a dry spell or disruption to our water supply, will we get to drink NEWater.