Episode 4: Coping With Size

PHYSICAL LANDSCAPE - From kampong to skyline, narrow streets to expressways, one constant in Singaporean life is the constantly changing physical landscape. Few localities exist in Singapore that have remained unchanged since the 1960s and Singaporeans joke that they come back to a new city if they leave town for more than a month. With few options available to a small country, we coped with our lack of land by expanding over the past.

LAND RECLAIMATION - It's a reflection of Singapore's never-say-die attitude that we've never allowed our constrains to get the better of us. Along with changing the old city, we grew by creating land. This story looks at Singapore's changing attitudes towards reclaimation. From the days when people used to be amazed by reclaimation and asked if their Marine Parade flats were safe; to the situation today where it's so much a part of our lives that our most important installations are build on reclaimed land (airport, port, expressway, Shenton Way, Jurong Island) We are hard pressed today to know where the original island ended and where the new Singapore began.

NEW WATER - All Singaporeans grow up knowing we don't have enough water. But the way we've coped with that has changed over the years: from water rationing, to the development of new catchment areas right in the middle of HDB estates, to the development of new water.

by MediaCorp