Conference: Rugtgers Model United Nations 2009 (RUMUN)
Country: Singapore
Committee: Special Political and Decolonization
Delegate: Jonny Reamer
School: Gilman School
Topic I: International Strategy for Disaster Reduction
Singapore is an extremely small country (slightly more than 3.5 times the size of
Washington D.C.), and is located in a conveniently sheltered area. As a result, the
country is practically immune to earthquakes; if one were to occur, the surrounding
landmasses of Malaysia and Indonesia would buffet its effects. Also, the country does
not have any volcanoes, primarily because it lies near the center of a tectonic plate.
Most volcanoes are usually found near the edge of a tectonic plate where reactions take
place. Even if the nearest volcano on Indonesia’s Java Island, Mount Merapi, were to
erupt, Singapore would be unaffected. In previous eruptions, ash produced by the
volcano’s previous eruptions never traveled such a long distance to affect the air quality
in Singapore.
The city-state is resistant to Tsunamis, despite being so close to other countries
that were devastated by the destructive Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. After that
tsunami hit, the National Environment Agency (NEA), the National University of
Singapore, and the Nanyang Technological University joint forces to embark on a $1.3
million study that evaluated the probability and impact of a tsunami on Singapore. The
conclusions of the two-year study were relieving—it “confirmed that the impact of a
tsunami on Singapore is likely to be minimal as even an earthquake of seismic order 9.0
and above will take more than 10 hours to reach Singapore.” After 10 hours, the
tsunami’s energy will be largely dissipated, and hence, a minimal impact for Singapore.
Furthermore, the shallow nature of the narrow waters in the Malacca Straits and South
China Sea would “significantly slow down any tsunami propagation and dissipate its
energy.” Even though the risk of Singapore is low, “NEA has developed a tsunami
response plan with the cooperation of the relevant agencies, namely the Singapore
Police Force, Maritime Port Authority (MPA), Jurong Town Corporation (JTC), and the
Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC). As a result of Singapore’s sheltered location,
the warning of a possible tsunami will be early. The tsunami response plan’s job is to use
that lead time to send out alerts, warnings, and general information about the tsunami
to the public. This effort will likely minimize any dangerous effects the tsunami may
have. Also, the tsunami response plan “continues to monitor the regional seismic
activities for possible occurrences of tsunamis.
In recent years, climate change has had a huge effect on natural disasters—not
only are they becoming larger and more common, but they are also becoming more
unpredictable. Countries need to acknowledge the situation at hand by making
initiatives that proactively prepare for such events and need to make sure that they are
able to efficiently recover from a natural disaster, like Singapore’s tsunami response
team. If countries find themselves surprised and unprepared, the financial,
environmental, and human losses will only expand.