SINGAPORE: One way for Singapore to develop into a sustainable city is by growing its own food and vegetables in areas such as the basements of buildings.

This is according to an expert who spoke on Monday at the inaugural lecture series by the Ministry of National Development (MND), entitled "Sustainable Development and Competitiveness of Cities".

The new eco-city of Dongtan in Shanghai will have food production factories built within the city.

Experts said Singapore, too, should look into such initiatives if it wants to be sustainable in the long run.

Peter Head, project director of ARUP's Dongtan Eco-city Project, said: "I think there are opportunities to start looking at these food factory ideas for green leafy vegetable production and maybe some kinds of fruit, where we can use recycled water, nutrients from the waste drain and forms of renewable energy because you've got so much sun energy in Singapore."

That is one way Singapore can retrofit sustainable features into its developed landscape and make use of existing facilities to improve efficiency and energy consumption.

Mr Head said: "It's clear that the city planning and the approach to it (in Singapore) has all the elements. The big challenge for Singapore is resource management and the fact that it is so dependent at the moment on water – although that is diminishing – and food, materials and energy supplies...

"I think the great challenge for Singapore is to look at those issues to see if it's possible to move the dependency to some extent."

Singapore has managed to achieve some degree of success in developing a sustainable environment in future.

Within the construction sector for example, it has achieved resource efficiency, with the use of recycled materials for selected infrastructure.

The MND said other elements incorporated to ensure sustainability include providing sufficient land to meet economic needs as well as developing a comprehensive food safety programme to ensure that imported food is safe for consumption.


- CNA/so