News

With the temperature in Singapore hitting around 36 deg C lately, it is hard to survive the heat without cooling my house and incurring a higher electricity bill ( March 25). Many of my new neighbours in a private housing estate at Henry Park are building massive three- or four-storey houses with maximum built-in area, sadly leaving almost no garden around their houses. Some of these houses do not even have a grass patch or trees, with all the areas tiled up. Most of them have eight to 12 air-conditioner compressor units to cool the house, and these emit a lot of heat. I wonder how environmentally friendly are these houses. Not many of them have solar panels. An 8,000 sq ft bungalow in the neighbourhood was developed into four 3½ storey terraced houses. Before this, the bungalow had many trees in its compound, and the National Parks Board also planted at least six Japanese fern trees in the mid-2000s along the roads. Due to the construction works, these trees were cut, with NParks’ permission. With the development completed, I hope NParks will replant the trees to provide shade against the sun. The Urban Redevelopment Authority should look into how landed property developments are being built right up to the boundary of the house. For example, the backyard is built up to within 2m from the boundary line of the house. Most of these new houses have air-con compressor units stacked up in the backyard, creating a lot of heat and noise. I suggest that home owners and developers of landed homes should be made to leave a portion of the land, say 20 per cent to 25 per cent, unbuilt and as space for greenery. This should apply to condominium developments too.