Vertical Limit

This morning we transitioned from learning about the history of Singapore, to learning about how it is confronting its problems today. Singapore is a very small island, but is currently home to 5.3 million people and the government is projecting the population to rise to 6.9 million. In order to fit so many people on an island, you have to plan how you use each plot of land very carefully. This is why there are so many skyscrapers in Singapore. They have to build vertically instead of horizontally in order to make everything fit.

Singapore used to look like a bleak, dirty city, but has transformed itself into and incredibly beautiful “city in a garden”. One of the steps that the developers used to “green” the city was to change the drainage canals from long strips of concrete to reestablished rivers. These rivers used to flow through Singapore, but were channeled to flow through a manmade canal instead. Now, engineers have reverted them back to the original landscape. We visited one such transformation. This park is absolutely beautiful with fish swimming in the river and the city skyline in the background.

 

One of the coolest parts of the part was the natural filtration system. Water flows through a network of plants and soil that help to filter the water. The water that flows out of the pipes is much clearer that the water that went into the water garden.

After lunch, we went on a driving tour through Singapore. It was just a quick overview but we had a chance to see Singapore as a whole. Our professors pointed out important buildings and gave us a little bit of insight into the planning that went into developing such a modern city in only a few years. One of the more interesting (if not morbid) parts of the tour was when we passed the graveyards. Everyone in the city is buried in one area on the island, but there are different cemeteries depending on religion. You can see thousands of gravesites spread out among the hills. Unfortunately, Singapore is running out of space and there isn’t enough room for many more people to be buried. The government has decided that people can only be buried for 10 years. After that the body is exhumed and cremated. Then, that plot of land is used to bury someone else. It is kind of sad, but I guess it’s necessary.

Later in the tour, we stopped at the northernmost point of the island and you could clearly see the country of Malaysia on the other side of the river. We will be going to Malaysia later in the trip, so stay tuned!