For water quality, Singapore's inland, coastal, and recreational beach waters, have met their respective water quality guidelines.
Seven popular beaches achieved a Good banding on NEA’s recreational water quality guidelines, consistent with primary contact recreational activities.
These activities are those that involve immersion in water, such as swimming, windsurfing and other water sports.
Mr Ram Bhaskar, NEA's deputy chief executive officer of environmental protection and director-general of environmental protection said: “We enjoy clean ambient air and inland and coastal waters throughout most times of the year.
"This is achieved through a multi-prong pollution management strategy comprising upstream planning controls, surveillance and enforcement, and downstream environmental monitoring.
"The state of our air and water quality serves as a gauge in assessing the effectiveness of the pollution management strategies and drives policy reviews, as we continue to strive towards achieving international environmental standards."
NEA said it has been conducting trials of new monitoring technologies, including the use of low-cost air quality sensors.
These sensors will provide a higher spatial resolution of the dispersion of air pollutants, added NEA.
The low cost and portability of the sensors make it possible to obtain air quality measurements in more locations, such as along roadsides, in areas where there is high pedestrian activity, or near sources of pollution that may not have space to site an air quality monitoring station.
The agency is also collaborating with research institutions to "tap on additional scientific support".
For example, there is a project with the National University of Singapore’s Environmental Research Institute (NERI) to better determine if smoke haze incidents could be due to peatland burning.
During the 2019 haze episode, the peat forest smoke indicator developed by NERI was used and it established that PM2.5 mainly originated from peatland burning in the region, as analysis conducted on it revealed higher fractions of the unique ratios of organic carbon in the carbonaceous profile of PM2.5.
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Seven popular beaches achieved a Good banding on NEA’s recreational water quality guidelines, consistent with primary contact recreational activities.
These activities are those that involve immersion in water, such as swimming, windsurfing and other water sports.
Mr Ram Bhaskar, NEA's deputy chief executive officer of environmental protection and director-general of environmental protection said: “We enjoy clean ambient air and inland and coastal waters throughout most times of the year.
"This is achieved through a multi-prong pollution management strategy comprising upstream planning controls, surveillance and enforcement, and downstream environmental monitoring.
"The state of our air and water quality serves as a gauge in assessing the effectiveness of the pollution management strategies and drives policy reviews, as we continue to strive towards achieving international environmental standards."
NEW MONITORING TECHNOLOGIES
NEA said it has been conducting trials of new monitoring technologies, including the use of low-cost air quality sensors.
These sensors will provide a higher spatial resolution of the dispersion of air pollutants, added NEA.
The low cost and portability of the sensors make it possible to obtain air quality measurements in more locations, such as along roadsides, in areas where there is high pedestrian activity, or near sources of pollution that may not have space to site an air quality monitoring station.
The agency is also collaborating with research institutions to "tap on additional scientific support".
For example, there is a project with the National University of Singapore’s Environmental Research Institute (NERI) to better determine if smoke haze incidents could be due to peatland burning.
During the 2019 haze episode, the peat forest smoke indicator developed by NERI was used and it established that PM2.5 mainly originated from peatland burning in the region, as analysis conducted on it revealed higher fractions of the unique ratios of organic carbon in the carbonaceous profile of PM2.5.
Continue reading...