Coastal Protection Bill to safeguard Singapore’s coastline against rising sea levels and extreme weather events passed

27 March 2026

The Coastal Protection Bill (“Bill”) was read a second time in Parliament and passed on 6 March 2026. The Bill seeks to safeguard Singapore’s coastline against rising sea levels and extreme weather events by establishing clear responsibilities of landowners for coastal protection and ensuring compliance with coastal protection standards. These new coastal protection elements will be introduced into the existing Sewerage and Drainage Act 1999, which will be renamed the Sewerage, Drainage and Coastal Protection Act 1999 (“SDCPA”).

Set out below is a description of the Bill’s features as highlighted by Minister Grace Fu in her second reading speech.

Singapore’s approach to coastal protection and role of PUB

The goal of coastal protection is to protect assets and livelihoods and preserve the land functionality by stopping seawater from flooding land. Singapore seeks to do this by establishing a continuous line of defence that will protect against permanent coastal flooding caused by sea level rise, as well as transient coastal flooding from high tides and storm surges. The Bill will provide PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, with powers to determine the location of this continuous line of defence and gazette this line as an absolute protection boundary (“APB”). PUB will decide where the APBs are after carrying out studies on the different regions of Singapore.

There may be some places, such as beaches and coastal parks, where the Government may wish to retain access to the sea and allow for transient coastal flooding. The Government will therefore gazette Protection Boundaries to delineate the boundaries behind which the land must be protected from permanent coastal flooding.

Responsibility for coastal protection

The Bill provides for coastal protection responsibilities to be undertaken by owners of prescribed places, or “landowners”. Under the new section 30E of the SDCPA, each landowner must ensure that there is a coastal protection measure for the prescribed place by a stipulated date. All landowners within the same region will have to complete their measures by the date to accord protection to all within the region. These owners include the Government, statutory boards, and lessees with leases longer than three years. Much of the coastal protection measures will be implemented by the Government and statutory boards as they own about 70% of the coastline.

The Government observes that different landowners will require customised coastal protection measures to suit their individual needs. The measures will differ depending on their land use and operational requirements. It would not be practical, nor desirable, for the Government to implement standard coastal protection measures for such a wide range of land uses, from ports and ship-building yards to petrochemical plants.

The Government will support landowners in fulfilling their obligations with the following initiatives:

  • Capital grant: A landowners can apply to the Government for a capital grant after the legal obligation to implement measures has been formally imposed on them. The grant is to be used to cover the cost of studies, services diversion, and construction necessary to implement coastal protection measures. The total grant amount will be split into reimbursement tranches to help with a landowner’s planning and cashflow.
  • Technical advice and consultation: The Government will offer technical advice and consultations to landowners. The Government has been levelling up industry competency on coastal protection to help ensure the local engineering industry has the proficiency to provide professional services to landowners to implement the measures to the standard required by PUB.

PUB to coordinate coastal protection

While coastal protection works are undertaken by individual landowners, PUB will coordinate the works around the entire island. To keep seawater out, coastal protection measures need to be connected to each other, and the connection must be watertight. Section 30G requires landowners to connect their coastal protection measures with their adjacent neighbours. It also details how the responsibility of performing the connection will be allocated. PUB will be empowered under section 30P to require neighbours to permit entry to their premises or render assistance for the purposes of connecting the coastal protection measures.

PUB will maintain centralised control and oversight of coastal protection. Landowners will be required to seek PUB’s approval before undertaking coastal protection works, or before altering existing coastal protection measures. Works within a designated coastal protection safety corridor (“safety corridor”) will be regulated under the new section 30N.

The coastal protection measures and the safety corridor will be delineated in the Coastal Protection Interpretation Plan under section 30C. This will be hosted on digital systems accessible to the public, where relevant details of coastal protection measures, and the locations of the safety corridor, will be available.

For landowners with deployable barriers, regulations may be issued requiring them to deploy the barriers before an imminent coastal flooding event, as required by PUB. PUB will develop forecasting abilities to anticipate potential coastal floods, so that early warning can be provided to landowners.

To ensure public safety in transiently floodable areas along the coast, landowners of premises within such areas will be required to prepare a flood response plan and periodically conduct drills based on the flood response plan.

Timeframe for carrying out coastal protection obligations

The Government will publish the locations of the APBs and protection boundaries for each region. To provide landowners of prescribed places with sufficient lead time to fulfil their obligations, PUB targets to inform them of their obligations about 10 years ahead of the expected completion date. Landowners will be first notified by PUB when PUB has identified the indicative location of the continuous line of defence. Landowners will then be notified of the specific coastal protection requirements, and the date by which the coastal protection measures must be in place. Landowners will have at least five years from the second notification to implement their measures.

The Government will publish a Coastal Protection Code of Practice to guide landowners and the industry on how to fulfil their coastal protection obligations. Landowners will have the flexibility to design the coastal protection measures around their needs, so long as they comply with the requirements stipulated in the Code.

Enforcement powers

PUB will be conferred powers to enable it to carry out its coastal protection functions, deter undesirable behaviours, and provide immunities for officers to carry out their duties. There will be penalties for actions that affect the continuous line of defence, and for failure to comply with a written notice from PUB. PUB will also be provided with emergency powers of entry which may be invoked if, for example, an imminent coastal flooding event is forecasted and a landowner cannot be contacted to deploy the coastal protection measure.

Reference materials

The following materials are available on the Parliament website www.parliament.gov.sg and MSE website www.mse.gov.sg: