Singapore, an island nation surrounded by water but extremely thirsty.
On 1 September 1962, Singapore, under the auspices of Lee Kuan Yew, held a referendum on "how" Singapore would join the soon-to-be-established Federation of Malaysia, with three options: 1. Merger but partial autonomy; 2. Merge to become a state in Malaysia; 3. Merger, with reference to sarawak and sabah treatment.
As you can see, whichever option is chosen, the result is to join Malaysia, with 71% of voters voting for the first, but 26% of voters voting "blank" to resist the "manipulated" referendum. The ruling Papa Party had long anticipated this, and it could not make up its mind with a blank vote, so it had to follow the wishes of the majority of voters. Eventually, Singapore joined the Federation of Malaysia, as Lee Kuan Yew wished.
In September 1963, the Federation of Malaysia was formally established, but in this extended family, Singapore was not happy, and the "honeymoon" was full of contradictions before it ended.
Originally negotiated before the merger, Singapore to provide Sarawak and Sabah loans as a condition, in exchange for Malaysia to open the market to Singapore, but Malaysia refused to open the market to Singapore, not only that, the Malaysian federal government also raised the tax rate paid by Singapore to the federal government from 40% to 60%, the key is that the federal government only for Singapore to raise the tax rate, the other states remain unchanged, which makes Singapore very annoyed.
Politically, Lee Kuan Yew had a "Greater Malaysia" heart and fantasized about joining the Central Committee, but before he could act, Singapore was seized three seats by an alliance of UMNO, MCA and the National Congress. Political contradictions eventually led to social unrest, and UMNO began to smear the Papa Party and stir up tensions between the Malays and the Chinese, and the following year there were several riots, killing dozens of people, while Lee Kuan Yew was slandered by UMNO as a "public enemy of Malaysia".
Despite the contradictions, Singapore still wants to settle it peacefully through negotiations and does not want to "divorce" Malaysia, after all, it only has 580 square kilometers, except for air, all materials must be imported. After more than a year of negotiations, no result was negotiated, and Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku even worried that the continuous deterioration of relations between the two sides would cause turmoil in Malaysia. On 9 August 1965, in the absence of Singapore's representatives, the Malaysian Parliament kicked Singapore out of Malaysia with a 126–0 vote.
In the face of being kicked out of the big family, Lee Kuan Yew's mood is lost, because Singapore is really inseparable from Malaysia, and even has the danger of being "thirsty to death".
Singapore is an island country surrounded by water, at the beginning of independence, its area was only 580 square kilometers (after more than 50 years of reclamation, it has now reached 728 square kilometers), as a tropical rainforest climate, Singapore is not short of rainwater, the annual precipitation is as high as 2400 mm, but after all, the island area is too small, there is no natural aquifer, can not be gathered into large rivers, so there are only a few small poor "streams", the longest Kallang River is only 10 kilometers long, the most famous Singapore River is only 3.2 kilometers. This makes Singapore's total annual freshwater resources only 600 million cubic meters, and the per capita freshwater resources are 124 cubic meters.
What is the concept of 124 cubic meters per capita? Chinese average freshwater resources total 2300 cubic meters, but this is only a quarter of the world average, two-thirds of the country's cities are short of water, and one-quarter is severely water-scarce.
Singapore has 124 cubic meters of fresh water per capita, making it the second-to-last in the world.
Water is the source of life and the decisive factor in the survival and development of the country, how can such a "thirsty country" change its life against the sky? Let the people achieve "freedom to drink water" and become one of the four Asian tigers, with a per capita GDP of up to 59,800 US dollars, becoming a high-ranking existence in Malaysia.
In 1819, the British East India Company, citing the remoteness of the Bengkulu colony on the island of Sumatra, prepared to find a new feng shui treasure at the eastern end of the Strait of Malacca, and when Sir Stanford Raffles landed at the mouth of the Singapore River, he had a premonition that the future would be promising. On 29 January, Sir Raffles signed a treaty with the Sultan of Johor allowing the East India Company to establish a trading post on The Island of Singapore. By the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, Sumatra was exchanged for the Dutch colony of Malacca, which leveled the Netherlands, and the British immediately signed the Treaty of Crawford with the Sultan of Johor, and the island of Singapore and its 10 km nearby island were ceded to the East India Company.
At the beginning of the port, Singapore could barely meet people's drinking water needs by relying on the limited water of the Singapore River and well water, after all, there were few people on the island at this time.
As Stanford Raffles expected, Singapore's entrepot trade was in full swing thanks to its unique geographical location in the Strait of Malacca, with more than 3,000 merchant ships anchored in the Port of Singapore in the third year of the port, in 1821. Singapore became Britain's most important entrepot trade base in the Far East, and was even called "Gibraltar of the East" by Churchill.
As Singapore's economy grew, the British colonial government had to razed the few dwarf hills on the island to reclaim land, and Singapore's population multiplied, so that the demand for water became larger, and the river and well water were no longer enough.
As a good neighbor of Singapore, Malaysia's freshwater resources are much more abundant, and it is still no problem for the British colonies to allocate to each other.
In 1927, the Singapore City Council signed a water agreement with the Sultan of Johor after "friendly negotiations", and the Sultan of Johor allowed Singapore to draw water from the Johor River for free, after all, the river water is the world's own money, as long as Singapore rents 2,100 acres (about 8.5 square kilometers) of land in Pulai Hill for the purpose of the reservoir at a rent of 30 pence per acre.
The agreement guaranteed Singapore's freedom of drinking water for 34 years.
On 31 August 1957, the United States of Malaya became independent, and in 1959, the Autonomous State of Singapore was established, and both Malaya and Singapore gained the right to self-govern their own affairs, so that the treaties signed during the colonial period naturally had to be changed.
In 1961, Singapore signed a 50-year water supply agreement with Malaya, whereby Singapore could draw 100 million gallons of raw water (i.e. untreated water) per day from Johor at a price of RM0.03 per 1,000 gallons, while Johor could purchase treated water from Singapore at a price of RM0.5 per 1,000 gallons.
In 1962, as Malaya and Singapore were about to merge into one family, the two sides signed a 99-year-long treaty and increased water withdrawals by 250 million gallons, so that Singapore could draw 350 million gallons of fresh water (about 1.32 million tons) from Johor every day, of course, the price of water purchases was unchanged.
In 1963, the Federation of Malaysia was officially established, everyone is a family, Singapore finally no longer has to worry about water, you can drink freely.
However, with Singapore's departure from Malaysia, the simple internal water supply problem has become an international problem. Once the water problem is not handled well, it will become an international dispute, and even lead to war, the most famous is the Israeli-Arab war, in 1967 the third Middle East war, Israel was worried about Syria, Jordan and other countries to change the flow of the Jordan River upstream, cut off Israel's water sources, at the expense of force to control the Golan Heights and the Jordan River.
After Singapore's independence, based on national security considerations, in order to ensure that Malaysia will not cut off water for itself, on August 9, Singapore signed the Singapore Independence Agreement with Malaysia, which clearly stipulates that Malaysia must ensure the validity and compliance of the two water supply agreements of 1961 and 1962. Since it was decided to let Singapore leave, Malaysia naturally did not care about such a little river water, patted its chest and agreed, so that Singapore could go with confidence.
Despite this, Singapore was not at ease and had registered two water supply agreements and independence agreements with the United Nations to prevent Malaysia from defaulting.
Under the two water supply agreements, Malaysia could propose price adjustments 25 years after the treaty was signed, that is, in 1986 and 1987, but Malaysia did not raise prices after 25 years, because it would raise the price of clean water sold to Johor for fear of raising the price of raw water, and also feared that Singapore would retaliate by reducing its investment in Malaysia.
Drinking from Malaysia's water, Singapore's economy has grown rapidly, and in 1997 Singapore's GDP had exceeded 100 billion US dollars, with a population of more than 5 million, while Shanghai's GDP in the same period was only 53.9 billion US dollars. With a rapidly growing economy and population, people drinking water and factories drinking water, Singapore's water supply pressure is enormous.
At the same time, Malaysia is also dissatisfied with the current water price and demands that the purchase price of raw water be raised. And after the 1997 Asian financial crisis cut leeks, Malaysia's economy suffered a heavy blow, in urgent need of funds to restore the economy, look around, only Singapore has this strength.
After talks with Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, Mahathir said: "We have a special discussion on how Singapore can help Malaysia weather the economic crisis. At the same time, we also focused on how Malaysia can satisfy Singapore's freshwater eyeballs. "It can be seen that Malaysia links water supply and economic assistance.
In 2001, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad finally reached a package of cooperation agreements, and Malaysia promised that Malaysia would continue to supply water to Singapore after the expiration of the water supply agreement in 2061, but there were differences in the details of water supply. According to media reports, Singapore earns Malaysia $600 million a year based on the difference between raw water and clean water, which makes Malaysians indignant and demands that the price of raw water be raised to RM0.6 per thousand gallons, but Singapore only agreed to raise it to RM0.45 per thousand gallons.
With the water supply conflicts that have recurred with Malaysia since the 1990s, Singapore has finally realized how painful it is to have the tap in the hands of someone else.
In fact, Malaysia is not smooth, occasional drought, in 1962, Johor and Singapore for several months without rain, Johor reservoirs also bottomed out, can not supply water to Singapore, so that Singapore's water plants also have no rice under the pot.
As a small country, God does not appreciate water to drink, which is something that he cannot influence. In order to achieve "freedom to drink water", the Singapore government has long tried other ways to implement its own "water strategy".
To solve the problem of drinking water, there are no more than two ways, one is open source, the other is throttling.
The so-called throttling can only save water, and the original "water-saving concept" in Singapore was mainly to keep the water source clean and impose heavy penalties on the behavior of polluting the water source of the river, thereby strengthening the use of precipitation. In the 21st century, Singapore's water supply is becoming more and more tense, the Singapore government called on the whole people to save water, in 2003 Singapore launched the "10 liter challenge" activity, planning to reduce the daily per capita water consumption of residents by 10 liters in 10 years, this goal was achieved in only 6 years, in 2009 Singapore daily per capita water consumption was reduced from 165 liters to 155 liters, and it is planned to reduce to 140 liters by 2030, water conservation has been engraved in the lives of every Singaporean.
However, this little bit of water saved is obviously not enough, so you can only find a way to open source and find more water.
In 1974, Singapore's first experimental water supply recycling plant was established in Jurong, and Singapore began to carry out sewage purification, but the technical cost at that time was too high to be carried out on a large scale.
Singapore had to dig a few more reservoirs on a limited territory, and at the beginning of independence there were only three reservoirs with a storage capacity of 31.1 million cubic meters, and by 1986 it had become 11 with a storage capacity of 140 million cubic meters.
In December 1989, Singapore proposed the idea of an economic open zone in the "Singapore-Johor-Riau Islands Growth Triangle", which hoped to exchange economic aid for Indonesia's water resources. In 1991, Singapore and Indonesia reached an agreement that Singapore could obtain freshwater resources from Bintan Island, one of the Riau islands, and could pump 121 million gallons of fresh water per day at a unit price of 1 cent per cubic meter to supply water to Singapore through undersea water pipelines.
But relying on others, once the faucet is turned off by others, you can get stuck in the neck. Looking around and facing the vast sea, in 1998 Singapore implemented the "Fresh Water from the Ocean" scheme and established the first desalination plant, desalinating 136,000 tons of seawater per day. In April 2022, Singapore's fifth desalination plant was put into operation, and it is planned that by 2060, desalination will meet 30% of Singapore's freshwater demand.
In 2002, the Singapore Public Utilities Board launched the Reclaimed Water Scheme to recycle domestic and industrial sewage and purify it into drinkable clean water, which Singapore calls "nascent water".
This reminds us of the astronauts on the space station, because the water source is precious, the astronauts in the space station have to use all the water sources, even urine to recycle, and now Singaporeans can be said to enjoy the "space-level treatment".
In order to reduce the cost of desalination, Singaporean researchers began to improve the process and studied the "membrane" technology that does not involve "phase transition", and the result is that this "membrane" technology has more advantages in purifying "nasous water". The quality of Singapore's "nascent water" even exceeds the drinking water standards set by European and American countries. In 2008, Singapore was awarded the "Environmental Contribution of the Year Award" by the Global Water Awards Committee for its "Nascent Water".
Do Singaporeans dare to drink this freshwater purified from sewage? In 2018, the Singapore Water Authority partnered with a brewery to produce beer from purified recycled water from toilets, with a 330 ml bottle of beer priced at SGD 4.5 and sold out as soon as it was listed. After all, we can even make a delicious dish with large intestines and small intestines, so what can't the toilet water use?
Singapore plans to meet 50% of Singapore's water consumption by 2060. This, together with desalination projects, can meet 80% of Singapore's freshwater needs.
From this, we can see that 2060 is an important node in Singapore's water supply problem, because the water supply agreement with Malaysia expires in 2061, in case Malaysia cuts off water to Singapore, it will not be thirsty to death.
Singapore has solved Singapore's drinking water problem through the "four major water pipes", namely local rainwater, purchased water, nascent water and seawater desalination, allowing Singaporeans to achieve "drinking freedom".
In 2061, the water supply agreement between Singapore and Malaysia expires, so will Malaysia continue to supply water to Singapore? There is a high probability that the water supply will continue, because for now, Malaysia's freshwater purification technology is limited, and the cost is much greater than the direct procurement of clean water from Singapore, and the water source problem is a matter of life and death for Singapore.
In 1942, the Japanese army occupied Johor and cut off the water supply channel to Singapore, and more than 100,000 British troops immediately raised their hands and surrendered, how could Singapore sit back and watch Malaysia cut off its own water supply channels? Singapore's total economic output is higher than Malaysia's, military expenditure is far more than Malaysia, once the fight starts, Malaysia really has no good fruit to eat, and this water source flows into the sea in vain, which is not good for itself.
Singapore, through the diversification of water supply, has become one of the world's top two water powers, of which there is something worth learning, many cities on the mainland are also suffering from water shortages, but there are still many deficiencies in sewage treatment.