Punggol East has a population density of 23626 persons per sq km. I’m not sure what you’re supposed to make of this number. It’s quite meaningless. Perhaps someone might want to suggest that the 6.9 million population scenario for Singapore in 2030 isn’t all that bad. Punggol East does have some open spaces, and even a water way too. The “worst case scenario” for Singapore is just 13700 persons per sq km.
Like all statistics, these numbers are just begging to be misused and misrepresented. Netizens quickly caught on to the bit in DPM Teo Chee Hean speech about Hong Kong’s population density of 22000 persons per sq km. Official sources state there are just 6450 persons per sq km (at mid 2010). Perhaps DPM Teo was referring to a specific area or district of Hong Kong. One could exaggerate figures by picking the district of Kwun Tong, for example, which has some 54530 persons per sq km.
DPM Teo actually referred to “developable area” in his statement. That’s how he came up with a population density of 13700 persons per sq km even in the 6.9M scenario. That means, according to DPM Teo, Singapore has some 504 sq km of developable land. It’s not clear to me what “developable area” entails, but presumably that excludes bodies of water, nature reserves, and other special-use land. Otherwise, if the official 715 sq km of Singapore’s total land area were considered, we would have a worst case scenario of just 9650 persons per sq km.
I’m not sure, still, what all these numbers are supposed to mean. The only way we can “feel” whether any particular density number is good or bad is by comparing it with another city. The trouble is, comparing with another city might not always be the fairest apples-to-apples thing. Each country or territory could have significantly different land-use needs.
So as I stated at the start, Punggol East has a population density of 23626 persons per sq km. The SMC covers an area of 1.34 sq km, and there 31659 registered voters as at the 2013 By-Election. How dense do the residents of Punggol East feel their constituency is? How bad would it be if the whole of Singapore were going to be replicas of Punggol East?
But, of course, the whole of Singapore cannot be simply replicas of Punggol East. We would need land for various things, like airports. We might be able to optimise the use of our land, like for example consolidating military facilities to Pulau Tekong (I don’t believe we can even nearly completely remove military facilities from mainland Singapore). However, it’s hard to say if this would make a big difference.
Another way to look at the 6.9M is to visualize if the spaces and the places we go to were to become 30% more crowded. Like if Orchard road were to have 30% more people. I’m not talking about infrastructure like MRT lines. We can add more lines and more trains to cater to more people. But could Orchard Road take 30% more people during Christmas shopping season? Or can Chinatown take 30% more crowd at this time of the year (i.e. leading up to CNY)?
Could the annual Zouk party at Sentosa take another 30% more people? IT Show with 30% more people?
How would it be like if Punggol East had to accommodate 30% more residents? Oh, wait, that’s easy. Just build HDB flats 30% taller. Just like we could add 30% more busses and trains.
The “space” squeeze is one aspect of the great anxiety that many of us are concerned about.
The other big thing is about how true blue Singaporeans will become a very small part of that 6.9M.
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