Forum: Find new ways of optimising space to house remains of dead

I agree with Forum writer Albert Ng Ya Ken that we need a long-term plan for the storage of our ashes (National plan needed to deal with space for burial sites, Jan 20).

I attended the dialogue between the National Environment Agency and residents on the planned development of a columbarium complex in Mandai Avenue (New funeral services and columbarium complex planned in Mandai Avenue, Dec 18, 2023).

It appeared to me that, currently, we have no solution to the future demand for after-death facilities other than to replicate the ones we already have.

The proposed new location is a huge 10ha site big enough for 14 football fields. The argument at the dialogue was whether there should be multiple smaller sites spread around the island, or a single large site like the one in Choa Chu Kang.

But regardless of the final configuration, the columbarium approach is just not sustainable. How are we going to find another 10ha of land after this new site fills up?

We need to take a dispassionate look at what is basically a system to house ashes in the most space-efficient manner.

If niches can be made smaller, the current columbarium capacities can be immediately increased. And if the complexes we already have can hold more, we may not even need to build more columbaria.

Next, we need to think about the turnover of niches, that is, replacing old occupants with new ones. Maybe after a certain number of years, “old” ashes should be moved to a common storage area, freeing space for new occupants.

As things stand, Yishun Columbarium is full and cannot house any new niches, and will remain so in the future. This makes little sense when everyone recognises the scarcity of land.

Will new columbaria be like the current ones, using a large piece of land to house a relatively small number of remains? Shouldn’t we build down and up, occupying less land but having a higher gross floor area? We should come up with a model that relieves us from allocating more land for columbaria.

Objectively, this is a simple logistics problem that is not difficult to solve. But it is one that involves religion, culture and all things human, particularly our cherishing of our dearly beloved.

We need to have that national conversation that Mr Ng suggested before deciding to build the next columbarium. Otherwise, we will just be kicking the can down the road.

Goh Boon Leng