Lee Ek Tieng (1933–2025) was the civil servant who headed the clean-up of the Singapore River, had the foresight to modernise the sanitation system, and ensured water self-sufficiency for Singapore. Writer Samantha Boh tells us how he did it with his colleagues and earned their respect.

Samantha Boh is a journalist and an author who covers the environment and science. She has written extensively on scientific breakthroughs in biomedical science, robotics, water resources, recycling, and food wastage over more than a decade. She is a co-author of The Last Fools, The Price of Being Fair and Lee Ek Tieng: The Green General of Lee Kuan Yew.

What Samantha Talked About

1. 02:59 – About Lee Ek Tieng
2. 07:16 – Lee Ek Tieng’s key achievements.
3. 12:31 – His personality and leadership style
4. 19:07 – Conflict with Economic Development Board during industrial pollution control and backing from Lee Kuan Yew
5. 24:01 – Building water self‑sufficiency
6. 29:20 – How NEWater got its name
7. 31:16 – What colleagues said about him
8. 35:31 – His hobbies and DIY spirit
9. 38:03 – Books by Nutgraf

Transcript and Resources

1. Read the transcript: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/podcast/civil-servant-in-charge-of-clean-and-green-singapore-lee-ek-tieng-samantha-boh/transcript/

Subscribe to BiblioAsia for more stories about Singapore.

This episode of BiblioAsia podcast was hosted by Jimmy Yap and produced by Soh Gek Han. Sound engineering was done by Nookcha Films. The background music “Di Tanjong Katong” was composed by Ahmad Patek and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to Samantha for coming on the show.

The BiblioAsia Podcast by the National Library Singapore tells stories about Singapore history.

Before air conditioning was introduced in Singapore in the 1920s, temperature control was a matter of architectural design. Environmental historian Fiona Williamson tells us how people kept themselves cool before air conditioning arrived, why weather science was important to the colonial enterprise, and what environmental history can tell us about a city’s development.

Fiona Williamson is an environmental historian with a particular interest in the history of the climate, meteorology and extreme weather in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. She is professor of environmental history at the Singapore Management University.

What Fiona Talked About

• 03:12 – How people kept cool before air conditioning
• 05:49 – When and how air conditioning was introduced to Singapore
• 07:53 – Who could afford early air conditioning
• 10:19 – European reactions to tropical heat
• 12:51 – Meteorology as a colonial science
• 15:31 – Observational stations and instruments
• 18:07 – Colonial attempts to manage water and flooding
• 23:15 – The MacRitchie Reservoir mistake
• 28:03 – Fiona’s book Imperial Weather
• 34:19 – Fiona's work with the International Commission for the History of Meteorology
• 36:52 – Climate history is…
• 38:02 – Whether climate change can be reversed

Transcript and Resources

• Read the transcript: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/podcast/the-days-before-air-conditioning-fiona-williamson/transcript/
• Read the BiblioAsia article: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/vol-21/issue-4/jan-mar-2026/air-conditioning-in-singapore/

Subscribe to BiblioAsia for more stories about Singapore.

This episode of BiblioAsia+ was hosted by Jimmy Yap and produced by Soh Gek Han. Sound engineering was done by Nookcha Films. The background music “Di Tanjong Katong” was composed by Ahmad Patek and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to Fiona for coming on the show.

BiblioAsia+ is a podcast about Singapore history by the National Library Singapore.

Jan Beránek sets out to find out what happened to his granduncle, Silvestr Němec, who left his Czech village for Singapore in 1938 and died as a volunteer during WWII. He finds Silvestr’s story woven with that of the Bata Shoe Company, the Czechoslovak community and volunteer forces in Singapore.

Jan Beránek is a Czech environmentalist and an energy expert. He was born and raised in the Czech city of Brno, where he studied physics and sociology. Jan has worked for several environmental organisations and was also the chairman of the Czech Green Party. He currently lives in Amsterdam, working for Greenpeace International as Director for Organizational Strategy and Development. He is the author of In Search of Silvestr: Unravelling My Granduncle's Fate, Bata, Czechoslovaks and World War II in Singapore (Landmark Books, 2025).

What Jan Talked About

• 01:31 – Introduction to the podcast and Bata’s Singapore history
• 02:07 – Silvestr Němec’s disappearance
• 02:29 – Jan Beránek’s research journey
• 03:26 – Family memories
• 04:37 – The post-war search for Silvestr
• 05:49 – Discovery of family letters in 2017
• 07:25 – Motivation for beginning the investigation
• 08:45 – How Silvestr was sent to Singapore by Bata
• 09:20 – Silvestr’s job at Bata’s flagship store
• 10:05 – Bata’s international success and localisation
• 11:42 – Bata’s early operations and expansion in Malaya
• 13:17 – What made Bata successful
• 14:11 – The Czechoslovak community in Malaya
• 14:55 – Czechoslovaks’ impressions of colonial Singapore
• 16:35 – Czechoslovakia during WWII and Bata’s wartime challenges
• 22:26 – Silvestr’s service in the Volunteer Corps
• 24:44 – What happened to Silvestr
• 28:37 – Jan’s research process and reflections
• 36:07 – The number of Bata shoes Jan owns
• 36:58 – Family history is…

Transcript and Resources

• Read the transcript: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/podcast/searching-for-family-in-the-shadows-of-war-jan-beranek/transcript/
• Read the BiblioAsia article: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/vol-21/issue-4/jan-mar-2026/lost-family-silvestr-nemec-war-search-czech-singapore/

Subscribe to BiblioAsia for more stories about Singapore.

This episode of BiblioAsia+ was hosted by Jimmy Yap and produced by Soh Gek Han. Sound engineering was done by Nookcha Films. The background music “Di Tanjong Katong” was composed by Ahmad Patek and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to Jan for coming on the show.

BiblioAsia+ is a podcast about Singapore history by the National Library Singapore.