Water Issues in Southeast Asia: Present Trends and Future Directions

10. Singapore's Experiene in Water Resource Management

243 10 Singapore’S experience in Water reSource ManageMent Wong Kai Yeng Singapore today is regarded by others to have done well in its sustainable water management strategy, both in securing sufficient water supplies to meet its needs and in managing water demand through public education and ownership. Singapore’s application of technology to produce NEWater, a high-grade reclaimed water, to supplement its conventional water sources, has attracted much interest from water utilities companies worldwide. Our extensive water conservation efforts and community-driven programmes have successfully reduced the island’s per capita domestic consumption to one of the lowest in the tropical region. Singapore water companies and the Public Utilities Board (PUB) have also been making their mark in the lucrative global environment and water industry business. Singapore water company, Hyflux, has established recycling and desalination plants in China and the Middle East. Sembcorp Industries also has collaborations with the Chinese government to set up and run an industrial water recycling facility in China’s Jiangsu province. Singapore also hosted the 244 Water Issues in Southeast Asia inaugural Singapore International Water Week from 23 to 27 June 2008 and more than 8,500 representatives from governments, utility providers, businesses, and academia were at the meeting. Besides launching the water fund, over S$367 million (US$250 million) of deals were signed at this meeting. The second which was held from 22 to 26 June 2009 attracted over 10,000 attendees. About $2.8 billion deals were inked at this event. The latest Singapore International Water Week held in 2011 attracted 13,500 delegates with MOUs reaching S$2.9 billion. NEWater has also won the “Environmental Contribution of the Year” title in the Global Water Awards 2008. Singapore is also one of the first countries in the world outside the Middle East which has demonstrated that membrane-based desalination can be carried out at an affordable cost. Yet, despite all these, Singapore consistently continues to be ranked poorly in international studies conducted on water availability. For example, in the United Nations World Water Development Report, Singapore was ranked 158th out of 193 countries in terms of water availability.1 While this apparent dichotomy is puzzling, it highlights a general lack of awareness and information on how Singapore has been able to overcome the odds and build up a sustainable water management strategy, even though it is not blessed with natural water sources. Indeed, sustainable water management requires nations not only to ensure adequacy in water supply, but also necessitates the management of water demand. This is aptly captured in Singapore’s PUB corporate tagline “Water For All: Conserve, Value, Enjoy”. Singapore’s achievements thus far do not come without its fair share of pain and knocks. However, through far-sighted long-term planning backed by strong political will, Singapore has successfully managed to build up a robust, diversified and sustainable water supply system to support our economic and social growth. Singapore’s ability to create a sustainable water supply despite its lack of natural resource has been hailed as an international Singapore’s Experience in Water Resource Management 245 success story. This chapter charts the various measures that Singapore has adopted to achieve this milestone — from the expansion and clean-up of local sources to new technologies, and demand management tools. It also shows how the local water authority, PUB, through its management of the entire water loop, has ensured that even used water and stormwater collection is optimized for potable water supply. Building up a reliaBle Supply of potaBle Water Barely forty years ago, no one would be able to imagine that Singapore would be where it is today. Indeed, during the early post-independence years in the 1960s, Singapore was faced with many challenges. One of these challenges was to build up a reliable supply of clean potable water to keep pace with population expansion and industrial development. This, however, was not an easy task. Firstly, there was insufficient proper infrastructure for collection and storage of rainwater, and the treatment and distribution of potable water. This was compounded by poor public health conditions brought about by the lack of proper sanitation facilities. This contaminated and polluted the water courses and rivers and made the treatment of water for potable use very costly and difficult. Recognizing the extent of the problem, the government embarked on projects to construct new reservoirs to secure new supplies of water...