Singaporeans in danger of extinction?

By Jessica Cheam , Environment Correspondent

Dr Hans Rosling -- PHOTO: JOSEPH NAIR FOR THE ST

Singaporeans are in danger of disappearing by 2100 if they continue not having enough babies.

Dr Hans Rosling made that prediction as he said Singapore has yet to feel the brunt of declining fertility and a rapidly ageing society.

If the babies do not come, this place will just fill up with old people, he said, tossing up the numbers that tell the story.

UN chief toasts Singapore's water strategy

He says know-how can be shared with other water-scarce countries

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon toasting PM Lee with a bottle of Newater at the Istana yesterday. He called it 'something far more valuable' than a glass of wine. -- ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

By Phua Mei Pin & Ben Nadarajan

Singapore's Newater has found a champion in United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, who said that he would recommend the strategy of recycling waste water to other countries suffering from water scarcity.

After visiting the Newater complex in Changi on Friday, Mr Ban told The Straits Times in an interview: 'I was very much impressed by the idea - of recycling waste water to help people have access to safe drinking water.'

He added that 'such Singaporean experience and know-how... should be shared by many countries which have water scarcity problems'.