Pulau Semakau
Encyclopedia
"Pulau Sakeng", "Pulau Seking" & "Pulau Sakeng Police Post" redirects here.
Pulau Semakau is located to the south of the main island of Singapore, off the Straits of Singapore. The Semakau Landfill is located on the eastern side of the island, and was created by the amalgamation of Pulau Sakeng (also known as Pulau Seking), and "anchored" to Pulau Semakau. The Semakau Landfill is Singapore
's first offshore landfill
and now the only remaining landfill in Singapore.
: 锡京岛) which was also known as Pulau Seking. Houses built on both islands were perched on stilts as most of the villagers were subsistence fishermen, making a living off the nearby coral
reefs. Both islands had a few provision shops but the community centre was located on Pulau Semakau while the Pulau Sakeng Police Post (manned by a Marine Police
officer of the Singapore Police Force
) was situated on Pulau Sakeng.
and Telok Blangah
housing estate areas by HDB. One of the oldest residents continued to live on the Pulau Sakeng despite his family having been resettled but he eventually moved out as well in 1991, as the island's jetty fell into a sorry state of disrepair. After which, the Singapore SPCA was tasked to round up the few cats that were left behind after his departure.
Subsequently, Pulau Sakeng was subsumed by the land reclamation process of Pulau Semakau and the present day Semakau landfill receiving station was built directly on top of Pulau Sakeng after that process.
The Semakau Landfill is Singapore's first and only landfill situated offshore among the southern islands of Singapore. It covers a total area of 3.5 square kilometres and has a capacity of 63 million m³. To create the required landfill space, a 7 km perimeter rock bund
was built to enclose a part of the sea between Pulau Semakau and Pulau Sakeng. It is currently estimated that the landfill, which began operations on 1 Apr 1999, will last till 2045. The Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources
, along with the National Environment Agency
which manages the landfill, hopes this deadline will be extended through various waste minimisation and resource conservation initiatives.
Semakau Landfill is filled mainly with ash produced by Singapore's four incineration plants, which incinerate the country's waste, shipped there in a covered barge
(to prevent the ash from getting blown into the air) every night. Contrary to popular belief that Semakau Landfill would be another dirty and smelly landfill, the care put into the design and operational work at the landfill has ensured that the site is clean, free of smell and scenic. During construction, silt
screens were installed to ensure that the coral
s were not affected during the reclamation works. The landfill is lined with an impermeable membrane, and clay
and any leachate
produced is processed at a leachate treatment plant. Regular water testing is carried out to ensure the integrity of the impermeable liners.
The terrestrial flora and fauna of the (natural) island has not been fully surveyed.
Marine flora and fauna
The coral reefs around Pulau Semakau have been monitored since the late 1980s to 2001, by the National University of Singapore, and from 2005 to the present by the "Reef Friends" programme (a joint project between the National Biodiversity Centre, National Parks Board and Blue Water Volunteers). Results of the surveys can be found at the 'Coral Reefs of Singapore' webpage and Blue Water Volunteers webpage.
The intertidal areas
A survey of the coastal and inter-tidal areas of the island in 2005 revealed four plants listed as endangered in Singapore http://www.wildsingapore.com/projects/survey/semakau/results.html, including the Seashore Bat Lily (Tacca leontopetaloides) which so far has only been recorded in one area of Singapore: Pulau Semakau. Semakau also has vast stretches of Tape seagrass (Enhalus acoroides) which is considered rare and vulnerable in Singapore. Semakau is also the only known location in Singapore of the seagrass Syringodium isoetifolium. The seagrass meadow is being monitored by the recently set up 'Team Seagrass'.
The mangroves
The construction of the perimeter bund of the Landfill affected mangroves on the eastern side of the island. The developers replanted two plots of mangroves totaling 136,000 square metres, just outside the perimeter bund. The two plots are doing well, indicating that there has been no seepage through the liners. Another design feature is the built-in channels that allow the flow of seawater into non-active cells, keeping the water fresh at all times.
Today, after years of operation, the replanted mangrove, and remaining natural habitats on the island are doing well. Even the closed cells, topped up with soil, are flourishing. Birds can be seen in the air and on the open landscape, fishes swim in and out of the lagoons, and marine
life continues to thrive in the mangrove mudflats and the western shorelines of Pulau Semakau.
, Keppel Corporation
, National University of Singapore
and the National Environment Agency
.
Suitable candidate species for coral culture are collected from existing reefs at Pulau Semakau as well as from other reefs in Singapore. The naturally occurring collected larvae, nubbins and fragments would be grown to sufficient sizes in the field nursery until they can be transplanted to recipient coral reefs for restoration or enhancement purposes. This is probably the first coral nursery in the region that utilises such “corals of opportunity”.
The latest report on the status of the coral nursery can be viewed here.
, National Biodiversity Centre, TeamSeagrass and volunteers from the public regularly conduct surveys and monitoring of the seagrasses found in Singapore in the inter-tidal areas such as Chek Jawa
and Labrador Nature Reserve
. The seagrass meadow at Pulau Semakau is one of the monitoring sites. These surveys are part of Seagrass-Watch, a global seagrass assessment and monitoring programme spanning 18 countries with more than 200 monitoring sites worldwide. Non-destructive scientific surveying methods developed by Seagrass-Watch are adopted. Data gathered is then fed back to Seagrass-Watch Headquarters, which then analyses the trends and condition of seagrass habitats at the local, regional and global scale.
, National Biodiversity Centre and the Tropical Marine Science Institute jointly launched a collaborative project to survey and identify the intertidal sponges around Singapore. The inter-tidal area of Pulau Semakau is one of the 24 locations. Although sponges are commonly found on our shores, they are poorly known due to the limited studies conducted.
The 1-year study yielded a total of 102 species of intertidal sponges. One species new to science, Suberites diversicolor, was described and a large number of 40 species of intertidal sponges were recorded for the first time in Singapore.
The National Environment Agency
on 16 July 2005 officially opened Semakau Landfill to the public for selected recreational activities. It was launched by the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, with 40 families of the former residents of Pulau Sakeng, one of the small islands from which Semakau Landfill was built, invited back to their former home as guests of the event. The residents had left over 10 years earlier. The opinions of various interest groups and organisations such as Nature Society of Singapore, Sport Fishing Association (Singapore) and Wild Singapore in using Semakau Landfill for recreational purposes were sought. Currently, members of the public who wish to visit the island are advised to contact TASOS, Starfish Learning Journey [www.starfishlearningjourney.com], Nature Society, Sport Fishing Association, or the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research which conducts guided walks on the shores of Semakau for the public. All groups are led by a trained guide. This supervision is in place to protect the island's natural environment. From 2010, the National Environment Agency will take over management of guided walks on Semakau from Raffles Museum.
Further, facilities have been put in place, such as strategically located shelters, lightning arresters and lifebuoys, as well as directional signage and clear markings of no-access areas to keep visitors away from the operation areas.
Targeting interested groups in Singapore now have a unique recreational destination in the form of a huge open ash-filled landfill tucked away in the pristine waters of southern Singapore, coexisting with a mix of mangrove
, grassland
and shoreline habitats.
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
's first offshore landfill
Landfill
A landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...
and now the only remaining landfill in Singapore.
History and Pulau Sakeng
Pulau Semakau was home to a small fishing village, as was the nearby island of Pulau Sakeng (ChineseChinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
: 锡京岛) which was also known as Pulau Seking. Houses built on both islands were perched on stilts as most of the villagers were subsistence fishermen, making a living off the nearby coral
Coral
Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...
reefs. Both islands had a few provision shops but the community centre was located on Pulau Semakau while the Pulau Sakeng Police Post (manned by a Marine Police
Police Coast Guard
The Police Coast Guard is the Marine Police division of the Singapore Police Force which also takes on roles of the coast guard typically handled by the military or as separate organisations in other countries...
officer of the Singapore Police Force
Singapore Police Force
The Singapore Police Force is the main agency tasked with maintaining law and order in the city-state. Formerly known as the Republic of Singapore Police , it has grown from an 11-man organisation to a 38,587 strong force...
) was situated on Pulau Sakeng.
Resettlement
In 1987, the Singapore government, after having acquired the land on both islands from the islanders, set about relocating the islanders to the mainland where they were resettled in the Bukit MerahBukit Merah
Bukit Merah is a hill in Singapore. Previously, it was a much larger hill that was situated at the present site of Henderson housing estate, which lies opposite the Delta Sports Complex. There was a Chinese cemetery on the reverse side of the hill. The present Bukit Merah Secondary School and...
and Telok Blangah
Telok Blangah
Telok Blangah is a district in Singapore to the south-west of the Central Business District in the southern part of the island. It is part of the Bukit Merah Planning Area, an urban planning zone under the Urban Redevelopment Authority.-Etymology:...
housing estate areas by HDB. One of the oldest residents continued to live on the Pulau Sakeng despite his family having been resettled but he eventually moved out as well in 1991, as the island's jetty fell into a sorry state of disrepair. After which, the Singapore SPCA was tasked to round up the few cats that were left behind after his departure.
Subsequently, Pulau Sakeng was subsumed by the land reclamation process of Pulau Semakau and the present day Semakau landfill receiving station was built directly on top of Pulau Sakeng after that process.
Semakau landfill
Bund
- Organizations :* German American Bund, a pro-Nazi pre-World War II organisation* General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland and Russia, a political party founded in the Russian Empire* General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland, a political party founded in Poland...
was built to enclose a part of the sea between Pulau Semakau and Pulau Sakeng. It is currently estimated that the landfill, which began operations on 1 Apr 1999, will last till 2045. The Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources
Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (Singapore)
The Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources formerly the Ministry of the Environment , is a ministry of the Government of Singapore responsible for providing a quality living environment and a high standard of public health, protected against the spread of communicable...
, along with the National Environment Agency
National Environment Agency
National Environment Agency formed on 1 July 2002, is a statutory board under the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources in Singapore. As a statutory board, it gives NEA greater administrative autonomy to be more nimble in the protection of the environment...
which manages the landfill, hopes this deadline will be extended through various waste minimisation and resource conservation initiatives.
Semakau Landfill is filled mainly with ash produced by Singapore's four incineration plants, which incinerate the country's waste, shipped there in a covered barge
Barge
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...
(to prevent the ash from getting blown into the air) every night. Contrary to popular belief that Semakau Landfill would be another dirty and smelly landfill, the care put into the design and operational work at the landfill has ensured that the site is clean, free of smell and scenic. During construction, silt
Silt
Silt is granular material of a size somewhere between sand and clay whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body...
screens were installed to ensure that the coral
Coral
Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...
s were not affected during the reclamation works. The landfill is lined with an impermeable membrane, and clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
and any leachate
Leachate
Leachate is any liquid that, in passing through matter, extracts solutes, suspended solids or any other component of the material through which it has passed....
produced is processed at a leachate treatment plant. Regular water testing is carried out to ensure the integrity of the impermeable liners.
Flora and fauna
Terrestrial flora and faunaThe terrestrial flora and fauna of the (natural) island has not been fully surveyed.
Marine flora and fauna
The coral reefs around Pulau Semakau have been monitored since the late 1980s to 2001, by the National University of Singapore, and from 2005 to the present by the "Reef Friends" programme (a joint project between the National Biodiversity Centre, National Parks Board and Blue Water Volunteers). Results of the surveys can be found at the 'Coral Reefs of Singapore' webpage and Blue Water Volunteers webpage.
The intertidal areas
A survey of the coastal and inter-tidal areas of the island in 2005 revealed four plants listed as endangered in Singapore http://www.wildsingapore.com/projects/survey/semakau/results.html, including the Seashore Bat Lily (Tacca leontopetaloides) which so far has only been recorded in one area of Singapore: Pulau Semakau. Semakau also has vast stretches of Tape seagrass (Enhalus acoroides) which is considered rare and vulnerable in Singapore. Semakau is also the only known location in Singapore of the seagrass Syringodium isoetifolium. The seagrass meadow is being monitored by the recently set up 'Team Seagrass'.
The mangroves
The construction of the perimeter bund of the Landfill affected mangroves on the eastern side of the island. The developers replanted two plots of mangroves totaling 136,000 square metres, just outside the perimeter bund. The two plots are doing well, indicating that there has been no seepage through the liners. Another design feature is the built-in channels that allow the flow of seawater into non-active cells, keeping the water fresh at all times.
Today, after years of operation, the replanted mangrove, and remaining natural habitats on the island are doing well. Even the closed cells, topped up with soil, are flourishing. Birds can be seen in the air and on the open landscape, fishes swim in and out of the lagoons, and marine
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
life continues to thrive in the mangrove mudflats and the western shorelines of Pulau Semakau.
Coral Nursery
A coral nursery was set up beside Pulau Semakau on 31 July 2007 to enhance hard coral cover and diversity in Singapore. This is a collaborative effort between the National Biodiversity Centre, National Parks BoardNational Parks Board
The National Parks Board is a statutory board of the Singapore Government.The National Parks Board is responsible for providing and enhancing the greenery of Singapore. NParks manages around 300 parks, the park connector network and the roadside greenery in Singapore...
, Keppel Corporation
Keppel Corporation
The Keppel Group of Companies includes Keppel Offshore & Marine, Keppel Integrated Engineering, Keppel Energy, Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation and Keppel Land, among others....
, National University of Singapore
National University of Singapore
The National University of Singapore is Singapore's oldest university. It is the largest university in the country in terms of student enrollment and curriculum offered....
and the National Environment Agency
National Environment Agency
National Environment Agency formed on 1 July 2002, is a statutory board under the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources in Singapore. As a statutory board, it gives NEA greater administrative autonomy to be more nimble in the protection of the environment...
.
Suitable candidate species for coral culture are collected from existing reefs at Pulau Semakau as well as from other reefs in Singapore. The naturally occurring collected larvae, nubbins and fragments would be grown to sufficient sizes in the field nursery until they can be transplanted to recipient coral reefs for restoration or enhancement purposes. This is probably the first coral nursery in the region that utilises such “corals of opportunity”.
The latest report on the status of the coral nursery can be viewed here.
Seagrass Monitoring
The National Parks BoardNational Parks Board
The National Parks Board is a statutory board of the Singapore Government.The National Parks Board is responsible for providing and enhancing the greenery of Singapore. NParks manages around 300 parks, the park connector network and the roadside greenery in Singapore...
, National Biodiversity Centre, TeamSeagrass and volunteers from the public regularly conduct surveys and monitoring of the seagrasses found in Singapore in the inter-tidal areas such as Chek Jawa
Chek Jawa
Tanjong Chek Jawa is a cape and the name of its 100-hectare wetlands located on the south-eastern tip of Pulau Ubin, an island off the north-eastern coast of the main island of Singapore...
and Labrador Nature Reserve
Labrador Nature Reserve
Labrador Nature Reserve , also locally known as Labrador Park , is located in the southern part of the main island of Singapore. It contains the only rocky sea-cliff on the mainland that is accessible to the public...
. The seagrass meadow at Pulau Semakau is one of the monitoring sites. These surveys are part of Seagrass-Watch, a global seagrass assessment and monitoring programme spanning 18 countries with more than 200 monitoring sites worldwide. Non-destructive scientific surveying methods developed by Seagrass-Watch are adopted. Data gathered is then fed back to Seagrass-Watch Headquarters, which then analyses the trends and condition of seagrass habitats at the local, regional and global scale.
Survey on Intertidal Sponges
The National Parks BoardNational Parks Board
The National Parks Board is a statutory board of the Singapore Government.The National Parks Board is responsible for providing and enhancing the greenery of Singapore. NParks manages around 300 parks, the park connector network and the roadside greenery in Singapore...
, National Biodiversity Centre and the Tropical Marine Science Institute jointly launched a collaborative project to survey and identify the intertidal sponges around Singapore. The inter-tidal area of Pulau Semakau is one of the 24 locations. Although sponges are commonly found on our shores, they are poorly known due to the limited studies conducted.
The 1-year study yielded a total of 102 species of intertidal sponges. One species new to science, Suberites diversicolor, was described and a large number of 40 species of intertidal sponges were recorded for the first time in Singapore.
Recreational activities
National Environment Agency
National Environment Agency formed on 1 July 2002, is a statutory board under the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources in Singapore. As a statutory board, it gives NEA greater administrative autonomy to be more nimble in the protection of the environment...
on 16 July 2005 officially opened Semakau Landfill to the public for selected recreational activities. It was launched by the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, with 40 families of the former residents of Pulau Sakeng, one of the small islands from which Semakau Landfill was built, invited back to their former home as guests of the event. The residents had left over 10 years earlier. The opinions of various interest groups and organisations such as Nature Society of Singapore, Sport Fishing Association (Singapore) and Wild Singapore in using Semakau Landfill for recreational purposes were sought. Currently, members of the public who wish to visit the island are advised to contact TASOS, Starfish Learning Journey [www.starfishlearningjourney.com], Nature Society, Sport Fishing Association, or the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research which conducts guided walks on the shores of Semakau for the public. All groups are led by a trained guide. This supervision is in place to protect the island's natural environment. From 2010, the National Environment Agency will take over management of guided walks on Semakau from Raffles Museum.
Further, facilities have been put in place, such as strategically located shelters, lightning arresters and lifebuoys, as well as directional signage and clear markings of no-access areas to keep visitors away from the operation areas.
Targeting interested groups in Singapore now have a unique recreational destination in the form of a huge open ash-filled landfill tucked away in the pristine waters of southern Singapore, coexisting with a mix of mangrove
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
, grassland
Grassland
Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...
and shoreline habitats.
External links
- de Châtel, Francesca. 'The island paradise built on a garbage dump', CNN, July 26, 2007
- Pulau Semakau on wildsingapore - Web resources on Pulau Semakau.
- Blog posts about Pulau Semakau from various blogs compiled on the wildsingapore google reader
- Photos of Pulau Semakau's marine life from wildsingapore
- Survey of Semakau mangroves, Jun 05 - Preliminary results for mangrove and intertidal flora and fauna.
- Satellite image of Pulau Semakau - Google MapsGoogle MapsGoogle Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...
- Hoshaw, Lindsey 'Refuse Collects Here But Visitors and Wildlife Can Breathe Free', The New York Times, August 15, 2011