Why S'pore Needs to Start Protecting Its Coasts Now

By 2100, Singapore's sea level is projected to rise by up to 1.15m. That is more than 70 years away, but the Republic is starting to take action today to protect its coastlines.

- Shabana Begum

In one of the most climate-threatened corners of the planet lies a small island nation, its shores being eaten away by rising sea levels.

Home to some 10,000 people, Tuvalu—located between Hawaii and Australia—is dealing with sea-level rise by building seawalls and reclaiming land.

But it is also moving its people elsewhere. More than 80 per cent of its population has applied to move to Australia under a landmark climate visa designed to help people escape rising sea levels, reported France 24 in July.

As a small island nation, Singapore is also not spared from sea-level rise.

But the concept of managed retreat, where people are moved away from the coast so the sea is allowed to swallow up land, is unimaginable for Singapore, home to over six million people.

Critical infrastructure also dots the country's coastline—from an expanding airport to power plants, military bases and reservoirs.

These are things that Singapore, a city that has to accommodate the needs of an entire country, cannot afford to relinquish to the sea.

Programmes like climate visas should be seen as a last resort, said Mr Bryce Rudyk, legal adviser to the chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, which Singapore and Tuvalu are part of.

"I think all small islands would prefer not to move elsewhere. While Singapore has some adaptation capacity, if seas rise by 2m, 4m, it will become so incredibly expensive that it can drag down the rest of the economy."

In places like Emao Island in the Pacific nation Vanuatu, residents are forced to abandon their homes and move to higher ground at financial, cultural and emotional costs.

"Unlike cyclones or floods that bring immediate and visible destruction, sea-level rise creeps forward quietly, year after year," said Dr Christopher Bartlett, special climate adviser at Vanuatu's Ministry of Climate Change.

NOT A PROBLEM FOR THE FUTURE