Hello everyone! Today’s post will look at how land pollution is defined in Singapore. Contrary to water pollution and air pollution, there are much less laws governing land pollution. One of the few laws concerning land pollution can be found, as always, in the Environmental Protection and Management Act (“EPMA”).
Defining Land Pollution
Under section 20, there is land pollution when:
“… the condition of the land is so changed as to make or be likely to make the land or the produce of the land obnoxious, noxious or poisonous.” (SSO, 2002)
Compared to previous laws, we feel that section 20 is rather simple to understand – as long as the usage of land is not impaired, there is “no pollution”. As “obnoxious”, “noxious” and “poisonous” are not defined in the EPMA, the common definition should be used (Note: all the definitions are directly copied from the source so as to not alter the exact wording of the definitions):
“Obnoxious” means extremely unpleasant (Oxford, 2020b);
“Noxious” means poisonous or harmful (Oxford, 2020a);
“Poisonous” includes causing death or illness if swallowed or taken into the body, or extremely unpleasant (Oxford, 2020c)
We find the usage of the combination of “obnoxious, noxious or poisonous” rather peculiar, as to be “poisonous” encompasses “obnoxious” and “noxious”. To repeat the same definition twice seems rather redundant to us.
Different ways to Pollute?
Other than the redundant definition on the impacts of pollution, we feel that the very classification of pollution through the impacts it causes is noteworthy. This also differs from how the EPMA defines water and air pollution. For both air and water pollution laws, they define pollution through the process of emitting a contaminant (regardless of harm) into the medium (air or water). However, land pollution laws are defined by the effect of the pollution on the land itself. To you, our readers, we ask, “which way of defining pollution do you prefer?” Comment down below and have a discussion with us!
Surrounded by peculiarity, it leaves me and Ryan thinking. Given its departure from how the EPMA usually defines pollution, which type of definition (through process or effect) is better? Are there any pros and cons to each? In our next post, we shall compare the definition of land pollution we created and the definition in the EPMA, as well as discussing the questions raised above.
Signing off,
Lee Yang
References
Oxford, L. s. D. (2020a). Definition of “noxious”. Retrieved from https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/noxious?q=noxious
Oxford, L. s. D. (2020b). Definition of “obnoxious”. Retrieved from https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/obnoxious?q=obnoxious
Oxford, L. s. D. (2020c). Definition of “poisonous”. Retrieved from https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/poisonous?q=poisonous
SSO. (2002). Environmental Protection and Management Act. Singapore Retrieved from https://sso.agc.gov.sg/Act/EPMA1999.