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7.5m too many
City's 'elasticity' must surely have its limits
Letter from Narayana Narayana
05:55 AM Sep 15, 2010
<--- http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC100915-0000046/7,5m-too-many
THE former chief executive of the Housing and Development Board and the Urban Redevelopment Authority, Dr Liu Thai Ker, confidently said that "the quality of life in Singapore will not be affected even if the population were to hit 7.5 million people" ("S'pore has room for 7.5m people: Ex-HDB chief", Sept 9).
His optimism appears to be underpinned mainly on the premise that "since we have planned for 5.5 million people (in the Singapore Concept Plan 1991), if we increase to, say, 6, 6.2 million, I think that additional 10 to 12 per cent will not make a huge difference".
However, 7.5 million people is a whopping 36 per cent increase and elasticity must surely have its limits, with an eventual snapping point, which could have disastrous repercussions and consequences.
Dr Liu's experience in the housing sector may have blinkered him into thinking only of providing accommodation for any increase in numbers.
A 50-storey block of flats would, of course, be able to house double the number of a 25-storey one but would it be possible to provide the necessary corresponding infrastructure and supporting facilities as well to ensure that "the quality of life in Singapore will not be affected"?
That is debatable, despite Dr Liu's lecture on "the importance of urban planning". As that well-known phrase goes: "The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go awry" and so too do theoretical calculations and projections.
For example, the less-than-3 million population in the early '90s has burgeoned to more than 5 million today but, despite the many improvements, public transport is not the projected breeze.
The MRT stations were designed so that a very definite six-coach train would fit into them with no possibility of adding more coaches to each train. Commuters now often wait for two or three to pass before they can get into one of them because of the overcrowding.
City's 'elasticity' must surely have its limits
Letter from Narayana Narayana
05:55 AM Sep 15, 2010
<--- http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC100915-0000046/7,5m-too-many
THE former chief executive of the Housing and Development Board and the Urban Redevelopment Authority, Dr Liu Thai Ker, confidently said that "the quality of life in Singapore will not be affected even if the population were to hit 7.5 million people" ("S'pore has room for 7.5m people: Ex-HDB chief", Sept 9).
His optimism appears to be underpinned mainly on the premise that "since we have planned for 5.5 million people (in the Singapore Concept Plan 1991), if we increase to, say, 6, 6.2 million, I think that additional 10 to 12 per cent will not make a huge difference".
However, 7.5 million people is a whopping 36 per cent increase and elasticity must surely have its limits, with an eventual snapping point, which could have disastrous repercussions and consequences.
Dr Liu's experience in the housing sector may have blinkered him into thinking only of providing accommodation for any increase in numbers.
A 50-storey block of flats would, of course, be able to house double the number of a 25-storey one but would it be possible to provide the necessary corresponding infrastructure and supporting facilities as well to ensure that "the quality of life in Singapore will not be affected"?
That is debatable, despite Dr Liu's lecture on "the importance of urban planning". As that well-known phrase goes: "The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go awry" and so too do theoretical calculations and projections.
For example, the less-than-3 million population in the early '90s has burgeoned to more than 5 million today but, despite the many improvements, public transport is not the projected breeze.
The MRT stations were designed so that a very definite six-coach train would fit into them with no possibility of adding more coaches to each train. Commuters now often wait for two or three to pass before they can get into one of them because of the overcrowding.
