Water Conservation in
Singapore
The conservation of water
through the reduction of demand has always been an important aspect of water
management (Postel, 1985). In Singapore, the government strives to lower
Singapore’s per capita domestic water consumption to 140 litres by implementing
various initiatives such as the water conservation awareness program.
Singaporeans have made an improvement; the per capita domestic water
consumption has decreased from the initial 165 litres per day in 2003 to the
current 153 litres (Public Utilities Board, 2012).
Apart from the reduction of water demand, the government has come
up with an alternative ways to increase Singapore’s water supply. This includes
the increment of water catchment areas from half to two-thirds of Singapore’s
land area, as well as through the emergence of reverse osmosis technology that
treats used water and seawater (Public Utilities Board, 2012).
The initiatives by the
government showcased the urgency and the importance of water conservation.
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| Singapore Water Coastline (Crypt, 2012) |
Why the need to conserve water?
In the
tragedy-of-the-commons situation, Hardin (1968) indicated that repeated
unrestricted consumption of natural resources leads to a decrement of the
resource and will eventually exhaust the resource.
Hardin (1968) assumes that
each individual focuses on their self-interest, and sees no harm in consuming
the resource, as they perceive their impact to be small since the resource is
plentiful. Some individual may be driven to consume large portion of the
resource. This situation worsens with population growth. Resources will be
depleted at a faster rate because of this.
To avoid the problem,
Hardin (1968) advocates the government in placing regulations on the use of the
resources. Ophuls (1977) believes that there are other solutions to the problem.
One such suggestion was education, usage of moral religious values and encouragement
of prosocial behavior in small community.
Tragedy-of-the-commons
situation may happen in Singapore, if sufficient care is not taken. Singapore’s
population has been growing since 1990, from 3.04 million to the current 5.18
million (Department of Statistics Singapore, 2011). From the statistics shown,
there is a need to ensure sufficient water supply in Singapore. Thus, the
government has implemented regulations on the use of water that includes mainly
imposing water tariff, water conservation tax, waterborne fee and sanitary
appliance fee (Public Utilities Board, 2012). The higher the usage of the
resource, the higher the payment cost. The implemented regulations are part of
curtailment behavior, in which reduces the usage of water (Clayton & Myers,
2009).
Another solution that is
widely used is education. Public Utilities Board (PUB) has been educating the
public through various initiatives. Initiatives that have been rolled out
include educating the public on water conservation behavior via commercials and
through TV programme, having exhibitions on water conservation, and carrying
out the Water Efficiency Labelling Scheme (WELS). PUB too has implemented
educational programme on water conservation to educational institutions, such
as primary and secondary schools.
However, implementing the
above initiatives may not necessarily produce the desired outcomes which are water
conservation behaviors. Thus, there is a need to evaluate the outcome of the implemented
initiatives.
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| Singaporeans at Bedok Reservoir (Public Utilities Board, 2012) |
