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Singapore is an island - completely surrounded with water. With water pollution, Singapore will be affected greatly. Notable effects of water pollution include those involved in human health. Nitrates in drinking water can cause a disease in infants that sometimes results in death. Crops can absorb cadmium in sludge-derived fertiliser; if ingested in sufficient amounts, the metal can cause an acute diarrhoea disorder and liver and kidney damage. The hazardous nature of inorganic substances such as mercury, arsenic, and lead has long been known or strongly suspected.

Rivers such as the Kallang River are vulnerable to pollution. One problem, eutrophication, occurs when river water becomes artificially enriched with nutrients, causing abnormal plant growth. Runoff of chemical fertiliser from industries may trigger this. The process of eutrophication can produce aesthetic problems such as bad tastes and odours and unsightly green scums of algae, as well as dense growth of rooted plants, oxygen depletion in the deeper waters and bottom sediments of lakes, and other chemical changes such as precipitation of calcium carbonate in hard waters. The Singapore Government may build a water treatment plant, also known as a Water Desalination plant, in the future. But if our water is polluted, even if they try treating it to become pure drinking water it is no use, because the chemicals were already  mixed with the water, thus making it unsafe for drinking purposes.

Millions of animals die every year due to two main types of water pollution: Oil Spills at sea and Chemicals dumped by factories into the sea. Spitting and littering in drains are also forms of water pollution. These points come to prove that Singapore will be greatly affected if this problem continues as Singapore is completely surrounded by water. There will be not enough supply of clean water and many people will get many kind of diseases. This is why the job of keeping Singapore from water pollution lies with every Singaporean. Even if it is not for the animals, at least for ourselves, we would be affected too!

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Last updated: September 05, 1999.