Did you know:
It is good to prune trees but not too much. Excessive trimming can affect their health and reduce their ability to withstand strong winds, causing them to topple over easily.
Did you know:
Cockroaches, rats, mosquitoes, fleas and flies would give many the chills. They are the five main pests or vectors (disease-transmitting organisms) in Singapore.
Did you know:
Flood prone areas have reduced by 100 times, from 3,200 hectares in the 1970s to 32 hectares today. All thanks to careful land development planning and a continuous drainage improvement programme.
Did you know:
Although Singapore lies outside an earthquake zone, earthquakes near Sumatra may cause tremors. Don’t worry, local buildings are designed with in-built strength, making them safe and resilient.
Did you know:
Singapore has 32 rivers and about 8,000km – about the distance between Singapore and Egypt - of drains, rivers and canals.
Did you know:
There are over 700 community gardens in Singapore, offering pockets of common spaces across the city for people to create, develop and sustain a gardening space in their locality.
Did you know:
Since the 1990s, the Housing and Development Board has been planting rooftop greenery above multi-storey carparks. This cools our surroundings and provides us with recreational spaces.
Did you know:
Take the world’s heaviest aircraft carrier, weighing some 95,000 tonnes, and stack 79 of them on a weighing scale. That’s how much waste was generated by residents in 2014 - 7.51 million tonnes.
Did you know:
Monitor lizards in Singapore can grow up to three metres long. Their venom has only a mild effect on humans, but these typically shy animals will attack when cornered or provoked.
Did you know:
In Singapore, waste isn’t wasted. Rubbish that gets thrown down the refuse chutes of HDB flats are collected and sent to one of four waste-to-energy incineration plants in Singapore for disposal.
Did you know:
Recyclables from your home include paper, plastic, metal cans, glass and old clothing. Non-recyclables are items with food and liquid waste, composite items, ceramics and porcelain.
Did you know:
Two million trees have sunk their roots in Singapore, which works out to about 2800 trees per square kilometre, or about two trees for every three Singaporeans.
Did you know:
Littering comes with a heavy price. If you are caught doing so, you may be fined for the first time offence of up to $300.
Did you know:
Demand for water in Singapore is met by our four ‘National Taps’: local catchment water, imported water, NEWater and desalinated water.
Did you know:
The Sembawang Animal Quarantine Station provides quarantine for imported dogs and cats so that exotic diseases such as rabies are not introduced into Singapore.
Did you know:
We are multi-racial and multi-cultural in more ways than one: All of the plants along Singapore’s roads are imported from Malaysia, China, Thailand and Indonesia.
Did you know:
Singapore has two main monsoon seasons, the Northeast Monsoon season (from December to March) and the Southwest Monsoon season (from June to September).
Did you know:
More than 80 per cent of Singaporeans live in HDB flats, with some 968,856 flats spread across Singapore in a variety of sizes to suit the income and lifestyle needs of Singaporeans.
Did you know:
Wild animals such as hedgehogs, iguanas, tarantulas, star tortoises, slow lorises and snakes cannot be kept as pets in Singapore.
Did you know:
All dogs above the age of three months need to be licensed in Singapore to prevent the potential outbreak of diseases, especially rabies which can kill men and animals.
Did you know:
Abandoning pets is not only a heartless act but it is also illegal. The abandonment of pets is an offence in Singapore. If convicted, the penalty for pet abandonment is up to $10,000, 12 months jail or both.
Did you know:
Watch out for high-rise litter. More than 2,000 cases were reported to the National Environment Agency in 2014.
Did you know:
Crossing the roads in Singapore is a breeze with 552 overhead bridges and underpasses across the island.
Did you know:
There are three common rat species in Singapore. The Norway Rat, which lives underground. The Roof Rat, found in rooftops, and the House Mouse which lives near food sources.
Did you know:
The size of a 20-cent coin – that’s all an Aedes mosquito, which transmits the dengue virus, needs to breed. Look out for sources of stagnant water to prevent mosquito breeding.
Did you know:
The four Water Reclamation Plants in Singapore treat about 223,200 Olympic-sized pools of used water yearly.
Did you know:
By 2030, Singapore aims to have 90 per cent of households within a 10 minute walk from a park, and have 400km of park connectors and 100km of waterways open for recreational activities.