I admit I have a strange fascination for Singapore, a hub for Asia as well as a world leader in water treatment. The city -state achieved last year a whooping 15 percent economic growth, ie. ten times more than my home country.
Almost despite this, it is according to Siemens’ Asian Green City Index, the continent’s greenest city. As with its European counterpart, the study focused on CO2 emissions, energy and air quality as well as other parameters.
21 other cities were studied, including Tokyo, Shanghai and Hanoi. Out of them, six are Chinese, four are Indian and three are Japanese. For more on the study, please download it (126 pages).
On a personal note this doesn’t really surprise me. Indeed, my previous articles on this city-state clearly show its commitment to green issues.
As a reminder, here is a quote for an article I published on Cleantechies in 2009 :
Conservation measures prove to be successful as the average Singaporean now consumes only 155 liters of water each day, compared to 176 liters in 1994. This has to be compared with the average Canadian ( 330 l ), American (300 l ), Australian (260 l ) Italian (200 l), French (160 l ) and Belgian (120 l ) consumptions.
To conclude: Water management in Singapore could and even should inspire many cities in America, Asia and Europe.
There are numerous business opportunities for water treatment and management companies. The BBC estimates that in Singapore no less than $3.5 billion have been invested in the past five years and that the same sum will be invested in the five years to come.
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You think that might be all ? Well, it’s not the case. As Wikipedia notes :
The Economist Intelligence Unit in its “Quality-Of-Life Index” ranks Singapore as having the best quality of life in Asia and eleventh overall in the world. (The United States are 13th, and France is way behind…)