NEA’s first State of the Environment report assesses air and water quality in 2020, analyses long-term trends and shares scientific insights

Singapore, 30 September 2021 – The National Environment Agency (NEA) today published its inaugural ‘State of the Environment: Air and Water Quality Report’. The report presents trends and analyses of the air and water quality in Singapore, and showcases some capability building programmes and research findings of external scientific experts.

2          Mr Ram Bhaskar, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Environmental Protection) and Director-General of Environmental Protection said, “Sustaining a Clean Environment is crucial in ensuring a quality living environment for all Singaporeans. We enjoy clean ambient air and inland and coastal waters throughout most times of the year. This is achieved through a multi-prong pollution management strategy comprising upstream planning controls, surveillance and enforcement, and downstream environmental monitoring. The state of our air and water quality serves as a gauge in assessing the effectiveness of the pollution management strategies and drives policy reviews, as we continue to strive towards achieving international environmental standards. We hope that this publication will enable readers to better understand and appreciate the efforts of NEA and various stakeholders in ensuring a clean environment for all.”

Highlights of the Report

Air and Water Quality Performance

3          The air quality in Singapore was in the ‘Good’ to ‘Moderate’ range on all days of 2020. The decrease in economic and transport activities as a result of the COVID-19 situation over most of 2020 contributed to the improvement in air quality, compared to previous years. In particular, the circuit breaker period saw a 28.8% reduction in the atmospheric levels of fine particulate matter (PM_2.5), 38.1% reduction in nitrogen dioxide, a 5.6% reduction in carbon monoxide, and 58.1% reduction in sulphur dioxide over levels in the same time period in the past three years (2017-2019). The relatively wet weather during the traditional dry season in the second half of 2020 also helped to keep pollutant levels down.

4          For water quality, our inland, coastal, and recreational beach waters, have met their respective water quality guidelines. Our seven popular beaches achieved a “Good” banding on NEA’s recreational water quality guidelines, consistent with primary contact [1] recreational activities.

Capability Building Efforts

5          NEA has been conducting trials of new monitoring technologies, including the use of low-cost air quality sensors, to provide a higher spatial resolution of the dispersion of air pollutants. NEA is also collaborating with research institutions to tap on additional scientific support. For example, there is a project with the National University of Singapore’s Environmental Research Institute (NERI) to enable us to better determine if smoke haze incidents could be due to peatland burning. 

6          For more information on air and water quality trends, as well as scientific insights from the various experts, please visit http://go.gov.sg/nea-soe-report for the ‘State of the Environment: Air and Water Quality Report’.