Singapore NEWater starts gaining support

Tifa Asrianti ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Singapore   |  Wed, 07/09/2008 10:48 AM  |  City

"Have you ever drunk NEWater?" The Jakarta Post asked Ng Ngee Hua, a taxi driver, last week while traveling from Suntec City to Orchard Road, Singapore.

He smiled at the question.

"Yes, I've drunk NEWater. It's fresh and clean, just like any other kind of drinking water. I'm sure the government has made sure NEWater is good enough for public consumption," said Ng, 18.

His colleague, Lim Boon Huat, said he had no problems drinking NEWater.

The Singapore government has recycled wastewater into clean water, called NEWater, for the past few years. (JP/Tifa Asrianti)

"NEWater is no different to other water. Water today is the same as the water that existed in the dinosaur era," he said.

NEWater is potable water that the Singaporean government produces from treated wastewater. NEWater is just one of four kinds of tap water in the country. The rest of the water comes from Malysia, reservoir runoff or desalination plants.

Yap Kheng Guan, director of the 3P network at Singapore's Public Utilities Board (PUB), said the government distributed free samples of NEWater during special events to promote the product.

"Singaporeans drank NEWater together for the first time two years ago on our national day. Since then, the public has gradually accepted NEWater," he said.

He said people were hesitant to drink the treated wastewater. However, he added, the government invited the public to learn about the process.

DEVIL IN DETAILS: A tour guide explains how wastewater is processed to become clean water at the NeWater Visitors Center in Bedok, Singapore. (JP/Tifa Asrianti)

The NEWater Visitors Center was built at the Bedok plant by the PUB. Inside the Visitors Center, the public learn how wastewater is treated into potable water.

To ensure the quality of water at the NEWater plant, the process comprises four stages: ultra-filtration, reverse osmosis, UV disinfection and water conditioning.

During the ultra-filtration stage, the water passes through hollow membranes to filter out suspended solids, bacteria, pathogens and viruses.

With the average membrane pore size only 0.02 microns, the filtered water contains only dissolved salts and organic molecules and will be ready for reverse osmosis.

In reverse osmosis, the water is passed under high pressure through a semi-permeable membrane. This process removes elements still present in the UF process.

After reverse osmosis, the water is treated further with UV light as an added safety measure. The last stage is water conditioning to adjust the acid-alkali or pH balance, which makes NEWater ready to be piped off.

"The plant runs for 24 hours, seven days a week, so our officers check the water quality every eight hours," Yap said.

NEWater currently supplies only 1 percent of Singapore's total water consumption. The amount will be increased progressively to about 2.5 percent of total consumption by 2011.

The rest of the NEWater is used for industrial purposes, such as factories, electronic industries, commercial buildings and other industries for non-potable uses.

In addition to the Bedok plant, which produces up to 18 million gallons per day, Singapore has three other NEWater plants in Kranji with a capacity of up to 17 million gallons per day, Ulu Pandan with 3.2 million gallons and Seletar with 5 million gallon.

Yap said his board would soon build a fifth plant in Changi to produce 500 million gallons per day, as it aimed to have NEWater supply 30 percent of Singapore's total water by 2011.

To provide more water to residents, the Singaporean government also plans to increase water reservoir coverage from 50 percent of Singapore's land to two-thirds by 2009.

Singapore has been importing water for decades from Malaysia. The two water agreements signed by Singapore and Malaysia, however, are set to expire by 2011 and 2061 respectively, and the countries' bilateral relations are deteriorating due to a dispute over the price of untreated water.

Singapore consumes 300 million gallons of water per day, equivalent to 1.4 trillion cubic meters, inclusive of industrial water. With the city-state's limited sources of freshwater, Singapore is able to supply its 4.6 million residents from those sources.

Yaacob Ibrahim, Singapore's environment and water minister, said that besides supplying water, the government was also educating the public to save energy and water.

"We challenge people to save 9 liters of water per day by cutting shower times by one minute," he said.

Ng, whose family of five spends around $50 per month on water, supports the program.

"We can afford the bill but the problem is we consume a lot of water. We should conserve water," Ng said.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.