• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Jennifer Marohasy

Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

  • Home
  • About
  • Publications
  • Speaker
  • Blog
  • Temperatures
  • Coral Reefs
  • Contact
  • Subscribe

Dam Building in Singapore

May 18, 2013 By jennifer

MANY South Australians, and the Australian government, and the Murray Darling Basin Authority, claim that it is necessary to have barrages across the bottom of the Murray River because of the upstream irrigation industries [1]. There is no equivalent large-scale irrigation in Singapore, but they have barrages across the Marina channel. Marina barrages Singapore

In Singapore, unlike Australia, the government freely admit that the barrages have dammed the estuary to create a freshwater reservoir. Such refreshing honesty.

Singapore is a tiny country with not much freshwater [2]. An official website explains [3]:

“Built across the mouth of the Marina Channel, the Marina Barrage creates Singapore’s 15th reservoir, and the first in the heart of the city. With a catchment area of 10,000 hectares, or one-sixth the size of Singapore, the Marina catchment is the island’s largest and most urbanised catchment. Together with two other new reservoirs, the Marina Reservoir increased Singapore’s water catchment from half to two-thirds of the country’s land area in 2011.”

“As the water in the Marina Basin is unaffected by the tides, its water level will be kept constant all year round. This is ideal for all kinds of recreational activities such as boating, windsurfing, kayaking and dragonboating…”

And this blog post is to reintroduce you to the revamped Myth and the Murray website that includes more information about the River Murray barrages … www.mythandthemurray.org


***

Links

1. For an overview of Australian politics as it relates to the River Murray barrages http://jennifermarohasy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Murray-Estuary_Sydney-Institute-Paper-2.pdf

2. According to statistics from the World Resources Institute, Australia is water rich with 50,913 litres per capita per day, while in a truly water scarce country like Singapore there are only 471 litres of available water per capita per day.

3. Marina barrage/reservoir
http://www.pub.gov.sg/Marina/Pages/3-in-1-benefits.aspx#fc

Photograph taken a few days while I was in Singapore.

Please visit Myth and the Murray.

Filed Under: Information, Opinion Tagged With: Murray River

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Debbie says

    May 19, 2013 at 11:40 am

    Such refreshing honesty.
    Totally agree.
    No nonsense re PP or Ramsar etc????

  2. Neville says

    May 19, 2013 at 1:10 pm

    Spot on debbie, trouble is our water policies are political fron start to finish. But amazing to think that Oz has 108 times the water availability per person than does Singapore.

    But boy are we hopeless at distribution and use of that wondereful natural gift. The lucky country run by too many second rate pollies.

  3. cinders says

    May 19, 2013 at 2:31 pm

    There is even a plan to duplicate the Singapore Barage on the Tamar http://www.examiner.com.au/story/1460977/barrage-backers-seek-funding-for-next-step/
    however as it is near the site of the proposed pulp mill, once described as Pristine Wilderness, there may be a ‘groundswell” of environmental oppositon.

  4. Debbie says

    May 20, 2013 at 3:20 pm

    Cinders, 🙂
    By the look of the comments, that groundswell has already begun.
    I can’t imagine there will be much ‘refreshing honesty’ happening in Tassie.

  5. Avatar photojennifer says

    May 20, 2013 at 3:54 pm

    Just deleted 7 completely off-topic posts on this thread – apologies – but let’s try and get them onto the open thread which is here… http://jennifermarohasy.com/2013/05/open-thread/

  6. Debbie says

    May 22, 2013 at 3:16 pm

    Meanwhile…..
    CEWH (Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder) has approx. 850GL in the MDB that it doesn’t know how to use before the end of this season. (June 31st). No doubt this will be exacerbated by the very welcome wide spread rains we are presently experiencing.
    The ‘flow on’ effect (excuse the pun) will be felt at the start of next watering season.
    Not much ‘refreshing honesty’ happening there either.

Trackbacks

  1. Singapore is an impressive city | Philippine Thoughts says:
    May 19, 2013 at 12:17 pm

    […] Dam Building in Singapore (jennifermarohasy.com) […]

Primary Sidebar

Latest

The Moon’s Tidal Push

May 30, 2025

How Climate Works. In Discussion with Philip Mulholland about Carbon Isotopes

May 14, 2025

In future, I will be More at Substack

May 11, 2025

How Climate Works: Upwellings in the Eastern Pacific and Natural Ocean Warming

May 4, 2025

How Climate Works. Part 5, Freeze with Alex Pope

April 30, 2025

Recent Comments

  • ironicman on The Moon’s Tidal Push
  • Don Gaddes on The Moon’s Tidal Push
  • Karen Klemp on The Moon’s Tidal Push
  • Coco Vaughan on How Climate Works. In Discussion with Philip Mulholland about Carbon Isotopes
  • Karen Klemp on How Climate Works. In Discussion with Philip Mulholland about Carbon Isotopes

Subscribe For News Updates

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

PayPal

May 2013
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Apr   Jun »

Archives

Footer

About Me

Jennifer Marohasy Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method. Read more

Subscribe For News Updates

Subscribe Me

PayPal

Contact Me

To get in touch with Jennifer call 0418873222 or international call +61418873222.

Email: J.Marohasy@climatelab.com.au

Connect With Me

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2025 · Genesis - Jen Marohasy Custom On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in