Singapore’s vulnerability due to its small size, lack of natural endowments and high water dependence on external sources has been turned into a myriad of opportunities propelling its population to continuously higher levels of development. Singapore has had a glorious past, but the past is history. Singapore will face a future that is more uncertain, complex and turbulent. For a small city-state, it will have limited control of or say on the events and problems it is likely to face in the future, ranging from economic growth, global trade, reliable availability of resources like water and energy, environmental issues including climate change and fluctuations, advances in natural and behavioural sciences, technology, and management practices. Sustainable solutions will lie not only in any one specific issue or area but in the interactions among all of them. Water issues are cross-cutting. All the issues Singapore will face in the future will have a water component.
The seminar will be a robust discussion of future water, environment and development challenges that Singapore may face and policies it could consider to manage them.