WATER SITUATION IN SINGAPORE

The Prime Minister: Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like to bring the House up to date regarding the position of water supplies. The necessity to ration water is determined by the rainfall and the water stocks in all our reservoirs. In spite of 11.23 inches of rain in December, rainfall for the year 1961 has been below average and our stocks, in spite of partial rationing, are 40 per cent short of total capacity.

The rainfall for 1961 amounted to 71.32 inches as against a yearly average over the last 86 years of 95.7 inches, the shortfall being 24.48 inches. The shortfall for 1960 was 34.15 inches, and we are, therefore, starting the year 1962 in only a slightly better position than we did in 1961.

The levels and capacity of all our reservoirs are below normal, particularly those in Johore. In order to improve the Johore stocks and to take advantage of the rainfall distribution, more water is now being drawn off from the Singapore reservoirs. However, present total stocks in all the reservoirs are as follows: MacRitchie, shortage 219.6 million Peirce, shortage 101.3 million Seletar, shortage 75.2 million Gunong Pulai, shortage 615 million Pontian, shortage 1,351 million

The total capacity of all these five reservoirs is 5,856 million, and we have at the present moment a shortage of 2,362 million. In other words, the present capacity is only 60 per cent of the total capacity.

The result is that we have started 1962 with depleted water stocks. It remains to be seen if the remaining period of the current monsoon will bring sufficient rainfall to make up this deficiency. Up to the present, the monsoon has not brought as much rain as we had hoped and expected. I am advised that it would be imprudent to lift rationing altogether as then there would be the danger of having to reintroduce it more severely later in the year. We can better decide on when to stop the rationing when we know our exact position after the North-East Monsoon is over in a few weeks' time.

However, since Friday the 5th of January, a less stringent water rationing programme was put into effect by which there is rationing only twice a week in the mornings, instead of three times a week in the mornings and afternoons. The only exception is in Zone 7 because, being an industrial area and including the Harbour Board, it is rationed once a week on Sundays only. If the rain continues for the remainder of the monsoon to fall as heavily as it has fallen in the last few days and our capacities are brought up to normal, we can probably resume full supplies by the end of this month.

The practice of discontinuing rationing on public holidays, such as Christmas, will continue for Thaipusam, Chinese New Year, Han Raya Puasa and all the other holidays if rationing is still necessary by then.

Mrs Seow Peck Leng: Mr Speaker, I do not know whether the Prime Minister is aware that the standpipes are made differently. Some standpipes cannot be conveniently let running. They are made in such a way that unless you press the nob water does not flow. That is good because it ensures no wastage of water. But there are some standpipes where you just turn on the tap and water flows, and if the last man takes the water and does not turn it off, the water runs until some good Samaritan goes and turns it off. This happens in quite a lot of areas in Singapore. Is the Prime Minister aware that this is happening? Would he consider taking steps to see that water is not wasted and that the taps are installed in such a way that water is not wasted by the standpipes?

The Prime Minister: Mr Speaker, Sir, Singapore is a city full of capable and apt, particularly ingenious, people. I have been assured by the people who contrive these mechanical devices that there is almost no conceivable method of manipulation which can be fashioned or modelled which someone cannot, with equal ingenuity, contrive to keep under pressure and water flowing for a small charge. If we spend our time in creating more business for those who make these counter appliances, then I am afraid the problem would still remain unsolved.

I think the Member for Mountbatten might like to put this picture in perspective. The consumption from the standpipe is seven million gallons per day, about ten per cent of the total consumption of the whole of the island. Our water shortage last year was something quite out of proportion to the saving that could conceivably have been brought about by preventing wastage. I am not suggesting that there is not one or two million gallons of waste everyday. But I would be grateful if, apart from just vague and broad suggestions, something concrete and positive could be brought to the attention of the Water Engineer. It has been suggested that one decisive method to enforce economy is the coin system. If somebody has got to put a coin into a meter before the water begins to run, then we can be almost certain that there will be somebody to receive every ounce of the water that drips out before the coin runs out. However, I am told - my colleagues and I - that it is an unsocialist practice to sell water. Therefore, the plan is not being proceeded with, if someone can contrive to give consumers of water an incentive to be at the receiving end of the tap to ensure that nothing is wasted, the Water Engineer would be greatly indebted, and, I am quite sure, a suitable commendation would be given and awarded.

Mrs Seow Peck Leng: Mr Speaker, Sir, the answer to that is the usual question of education. The Government has tried to educate the public by having posters all over the place to tell them not to waste water. Would the Prime Minister consider looking at those posters and consulting the audio-visual aid experts? Sir, any audio-visual aid expert will tell him that the posters are asking people to waste water. I will not go into details, but the posters pyschologically, influence the people to waste water -

Mr Speaker: Order. The Member for Mountbatten is very fond of entering into a debate at Question time. She is not entitled to do so. If she asks a simple, straightforward supplementary question, I am sure the Prime Minister will try and answer.

Mrs Seow Peck Leng: May I ask whether the Prime Minister has seen the posters that are meant to educate the public not to waste water, and whether he is satisfied with them?

The Prime Minister: After hearing the somewhat gruesome explanation of the autosuggestion contained in those pictures, I am quite happy I did not go to the S.P.A.!

Mr Rajah: Sir, I got the impression from the Prime Minister's statement that until our reservoirs reach their normal capacity, that is to say, they are increased by another 40 per cent, there is no hope of rationing being lifted. Would the Prime Minister agree with me that, on that basis, it would take us at least another three or four years, even so only if there is rainfall greater in extent than there is consumption of water? If that is a correct assumption, how then does the Prime Minister hope to build up his 100 per cent capacity?

The Prime Minister: As I was saying, every year we fill up the stocks over the monsoon period of November, December, January and sometimes part of February. With the 5,800 million gallons in hand, and the annual rainfall, we are then safely through the whole year without any question of rationing, provided of course nothing catastrophic happens to the rainfall. Last year, 1961, we started off with a shortfall of 34 inches of rain. May I just refer to the exact figure? The shortfall in 1960 was 34.15 inches. We started off the year with about 50 per cent of our water stock. It was in the expectation that the rainfall for the year 1961 would be normal that neither the Water Engineer nor anybody else considered taking any steps at all. But by June, it became obvious that the rainfall was already short for the first half and was likely to continue. We ran into a drought. There was water rationing by August. I could lift it straightaway without any serious difficulty. But we would all be running the risk that if the rain does not come as normal, that means 95.7 inches, the yearly average for 86 years, but is as low as either in 1960 or 1961, then by August we may be in trouble. Whereas if we hold the control on probably by the end of January, if the rains continue in the last few days as they have - the rainfall being sometimes on one day three inches in one continuous fall of 24 hours - then we can safely say that we have done all that human beings can possibly do in such a situation before we open all the taps. I think we shall be reproaching ourselves if we lift it imprudently and at a later stage enforce inconvenience on everybody, and everybody is buying containers, pots, kettles and pails all over again. People have got used to the time of the rationing - the cycle is twice a week now for mornings only - and it is more than likely that if the rains continue as they have, we shall safely do away with rationing for the whole year by the beginning of February. I am not saying that I expect the water stocks to be completely 100 per cent before we lift rationing. But the moment there is an indication that we are not going to run into another drought without reserve, we shall lift it.

Mrs Seow Peck Leng: Mr Speaker, Sir, since the Prime. Minister took the question of the posters quite lightheartedly, may I remind him that the Ministry of Culture spends a great deal of money on posters to educate the public? Since his attention has been drawn to the fact that the posters do produce the opposite effect, could I ask him to have a look into the matter so that public funds will not be wasted on posters that have the opposite effect to what the Government wishes?

The Prime Minister: I am troubled to think that I am leaving the hon. Lady under the impression that I have in any way agreed to her suggestion. I have done nothing of the sort. I invite her to bring forward any evidence to prove that the sight of a tap dripping autosuggests to the mind of the looker that he should leave his tap dripping. I think that is a proposition which first needs substantiation before all the logical consequences flow from her argument.