Water is the element of civilisation - or at least it used to be till fairly recently. All the earliest civilisations - the Sumerian around the Euphrates and the Tigris, the Egyptian along the Nile, the Indian in the Indus valley, the Chinese between the lower courses of the Yangtse and the Yellow River -revolved around waterways.

The key land surfaces at the dawn of civilisation "were those that offered portages from one sea or from one navigable river to another", noted Arnold Toynbee.

Egypt was one such portage area, for the Nile debouches into the Mediterranean,and the Nile delta is only a short distance, via the Isthmus of Suez, from the Red Sea. Mesopotomia was another, for the Euphrates and the Tigris flow into the Persian Gulf, and the portage area around the more northerly of the two headwaters of the Euphrates is linked by land and sea to Egypt and by sea to the shores around the Mediterranean.

Geography - water - made this entire area the hub, the geopolitical centre, of the Old World. Water is Singapore's element too. Singaporeans, whether they can swim or not, are all water people. Most of our Chinese and Indian forebears got here by traversing the seas. Malays were water people centuries before Stamford Raffles, followed by the British navy, got here. The sea was what conveyed the Malay language along the coastal waters of South-east Asia, all the way to the Philippines, and across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar. Modern Singapore would not have come into being if not for the sea.

That would be evident if one took a look at a detailed map of Singapore, showing the location of housing estates, industrial parks, and commercial and government offices. One would not fail to notice that many of us live and work near the sea. This is not surprising.

For one thing, it is difficult to be anywhere on an island the size of Singapore without being near the coast. For another, Singapore began, and continued for much of its existence, as a port. Inevitably, thus, the city first grew around the Singapore River, and spread out along both wings of the island's southern coast, even as it moved inland.

The planned development of independent Singapore confirmed the pattern of this early growth. If one casts one's eyes to the north of the island, and then shifted eastwards, one would see one housing estate after another hugging the coast. One would first light upon Woodlands, Yishun, Tampines and Pasir Ris along the north-eastern quadrant of the island; and soon after rounding Changi Point, and pressing down south towards the city area and the harbour, one would sight Bedok and Marine Parade. And if one's eyes glance further left along the south-western quadrant of the island, one would see even more housing estates:Telok Blangah, Clementi and Jurong, to name a few.

When both Marina Bay and the area around Tanjung Rhu are fully developed, this pattern will be complete: from 12 o'clock at Woodlands to 8 o'clock at Tuas, Singapore's coast will be girded with housing estates, factories, parks, ports, casinos, entertainment centres, and commercial and government office blocks. Given this fact, why not use the sea to transport people? Why not, in addition to the roads and trains which traverse the land, have high-speed hovercraft and launches plying the coast and rivers? Why not be water people again, here and now, not just historically?

Fanciful? Perhaps. But why should it be? If one lived in Tampines, and wished to get to Raffles Place, one would have to traverse half the length of Singapore. In terms of distance, the journey by sea would be more or less the same as the journey by land - and one would not have to stop for traffic lights in the bargain.

An undergraduate living in Pasir Ris now spends at least an hour travelling from home to the National University of Singapore: bus to the Pasir Ris MRT station, ride on the East-West Line to Clementi station, and then bus to Kent Ridge. If a hovercraft were plying the east coast of the island, the same student can bus to Pasir Ris Park, hop on board a boat, disembark at the West Coast Park, and then walk uphill to NUS.

The sea journey will probably take no longer than the land journey, the view will be better, and instead of smelling exhaust fumes, the student will enjoy sea breeze.

It would not be necessary for the hovercraft to service every conceivable stop along the coast, just as a bus or train would on land. A hovercraft cannot dock as easily as a bus can slip in and out of a bus stop. It will suffice, however, if only a few major locations along the coast are serviced by hovercraft.

If it were possible, say, to transport by sea just a fifth of all the people who travel every day from Woodlands or Tampines to Marina Bay or Jurong, that would mean there would be that much less pressure on roads and MRT lines between these locations. The more people we can get off the land altogether, the less congested will our roads be. Own a car if you must, but park it and travel by sea - that formula will not solve all our transportation problems, but it cannot make them worse.

What might be the objections to this proposal? There are probably many, but I can think of only two. Firstly, safety, for the sea-lanes around Singapore happen to be among the busiest in the world. But this problem is not insuperable. As it is, bumboats have been plying the coast for decades without smashing into supertankers on a regular basis. It may be possible, moreover, to dedicate a narrow sea-lane around the coast just for hovercraft.

The second objection is more serious: Is the proposal economically viable?

Frankly, I do not know. But what precisely does "economical" mean where transportation in Singapore is concerned? Already, 12 per cent of the island's land area is given over to roads, almost as much land as for housing. That is an enormous chunk of space in a small country. If our voracious appetite for roads can be diverted somewhat by colonising the sea, why not try it? We might begin small - say, a sea route from Pasir Ris to the Durians - and see whether it succeeds commercially. If it does, we can extend the scheme; if it does not, we would have learnt something.

But the scheme may well succeed. Sydney, for example, successfully transports people by sea around its bay. Ferry fares typically cost between A$3.20 (S$4.10) and A$5.20, according to a website. If Australians - who are not as watery a people as South-east Asians - can do it, so can Singaporeans.

Those ancient Sumerians and Egyptians, Indians and Chinese, knew a thing or two. They knew the land is merely the water's edge, and that the quintessential human element is water.