Mr. Joost Buurman is a ‘multidisciplinary economist’: although an economist by training, his work experience is in diverse fields, such as water resources management and modeling, spatial planning and geographical information technology, and systems engineering.
He is currently a senior research fellow at the Institute of Water Policy, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, where the interview was conducted. In the past years, his thematic focus has been on water and natural resources management. He has carried out numerous research projects and published in several high-impact journals. His extensive consultancy experience includes projects funded by international organizations for governments in South-east Asia and environmental consulting for the private sector in Singapore.
Over the course of research on my political issue, I came across Mr. Buurman’s paper on Singapore’s water policy (“Water Policy in Singapore”) and found it very insightful. Upon contacting him with a request for an interview, I was pleased to know that amidst his busy schedule and the COVID-19 situation, it was accommodated.
My conversation with Mr. Buurman was very valuable and gave me a good insight to the historical water relationship between Singapore and Malaysia and the implications it has today. Moreover, hide expertise in the field gave way to notable points on the different water treatment methods and the preference some countries hold towards them taking into consideration aspects such as economy, technology, and resource availability. Here is a transcript of the interview.