Water coolers at tourist spots can help reduce plastic waste

In the report “S’pore tourism must ‘up its game’ as Asian travellers get more picky” (June 15), Ms Low Yen Ling, Senior Parliamentary Secretary in the Trade and Industry Ministry, mentioned that in order for Singapore to remain a destination of choice for visitors, efforts are being made to develop new attractions.

It is great to see that upcoming tourism projects will also expand and refurbish the wildlife and nature-related attractions we already have.

That being said, it also means that we can expect human traffic in these places to increase.

I would thus like to suggest a way to make existing and future tourist destinations more eco-friendly — we should put up water coolers at major tourist attractions to cut down the use of disposable plastic water bottles.

On a recent trip to Sentosa, I noticed that many rubbish bins there were overflowing with these bottles.

Plastic bottles are not only harmful to the environment, but also a waste of precious resources to manufacture. This is especially problematic given climate-change concerns, as well as pollution and resource-depletion issues.

With the water coolers, tourists and residents alike will be encouraged to take their own water bottles and refill them at these stations. Every little action counts, and this is a step towards a greener future.