Rations to riches

Water industry professionals from around the globe descended on Southeast Asia in June for an International Water Association (IWA) conference in Singapore. And the country hosting the event was held up as a fine example for its implementation of first-rate water management practices.

Singapore is only considered a water-scarce country because of the limited area where rainfall can be stored on the island – the total land area of Singapore is just 704 km². Back in the 1960s, Singapore used to ration its water – and after warnings that rationing could be on the way back in the mid-1990s, when a team from Singapore visited the Gulf to see how feasible desalination would be for the island – a strong political will and efficient water management have helped turn Singapore into a country now set to profit from its water industry know-how.

‘Hub’ country

Traditionally known as a ‘hub’ country, for the Asia-Pacific region at least, thanks to its English-speaking workforce and business-friendly environment, Singapore has been working at positioning itself as a global hydrohub. Not only is it pumping money into research on water and environmental technologies, it is also leveraging on strategic partnerships with the private sector to boost R&D in the country.

So far, it has managed to attract leading water technology companies, such as Siemens and GE, to set up global R&D centres on the island. Black & Veatch is also investing US$60 million over five years to boost its presence there.

“Our decision to invest in Singapore is due to the strong commitment from the government in developing the water industry,” said Jeff Garwood, president and CEO of GE Water and Process Technologies, when the announcement was made last September. “This, coupled with the easy availability of skilled manpower and the strong enforcement of intellectual property rights regulations, makes Singapore the ideal platform to launch this R&D centre.”

The strong commitment of Singapore’s government is often cited as a key reason to set up there. In the last five years, Singapore’s Public Utilities Board (PUB), the national water agency, has invested US$3.25 billion on a number of innovative and large-scale projects, building what was briefly the world’s largest desalination plant, expanding local catchment area with additional reservoirs, and introducing the NEWater scheme. The same amount is forecast to be spent over the coming 5-10 years.

“We aspire to build a global hydrohub here. This will not only create jobs and add to Singapore’s economic growth, it also ensures that Singapore will always have the best technology to provide our population and industries with an adequate, sustainable and cost-efficient supply of water,” said PUB chief executive Khoo Teng Chye.

NEWater

NEWater is a high-grade water produced after treated used water has undergone a stringent purification process. Note the term ‘used’. Significantly, the PUB has undertaken a well thought-out PR campaign to give Singapore’s water industry a makeover. Just as Singapore’s rivers and canals, not the prettiest of sights a couple of decades ago, have been cleaned up, gone are terms such as ‘sewage treatment’ and ‘wastewater’, as the PUB looks to stress that its used water is not a waste, but a resource.

The effort to create a clean image certainly seems to be paying off. The NEWater visitor centre has been welcoming 10000 visitors every month and polls as the most popular outing for schoolchildren, who learn about their island’s four ‘national taps’: local catchment, imported water from Malaysia, desalination, and NEWater itself. It is the PUB’s goal for every child in Singapore to visit the centre.

NEWater is produced even more cheaply than desalinated water at Singapore’s Tuas plant, said to be the lowest-cost desalination in the world. As a result, NEWater capacity is likely to be raised before that of desalination.

Most NEWater goes to industrial use, but a small percentage is mixed with reservoir water to produce drinking water, an application known as indirect potable use (IPU). Stockholm Water Prize winner Perry McCarty notes that NEWater is of a “far better quality than what a lot of people are already drinking.”

The PUB is certainly well ahead of schedule with its plans for the adoption of NEWater. The cost per m³ for NEWater customers has been reduced on more than one occasion and currently stands at US $0.66, though it costs considerably less to produce.

After the opening of the largest NEWater plant to date at Ulu Pandan in March this year, a fifth plant is now planned for 2009. The PUB aims to have NEWater meet 30% of the country’s water needs by 2011, when the first of Singapore’s import agreements with neighbouring Malaysia expires.

City reservoir

Daily water consumption in Singapore amounts to around 1.4 million m³ per day, which is equivalent to about 550 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water.
By 2011, the PUB expects the island to consume about one third more than this, as it aims to increase its population to 6.5 million from the current 4.5 million, and is thus expanding the water catchment area in an effort to meet this growing demand.

The marina barrage, a 300 m-wide dam built across Singapore’s marina channel, will boost local catchment while providing flood control and a new lifestyle attraction. The barrage will comprise a series of crest gates and will keep out seawater, acting as a tidal barrier to fend off high tides and alleviate flooding in the low-lying areas of the city.

Once the barrage is in place, the marina basin will turn into a body of freshwater through natural flushing in 1-2 years. Rain water from an area of 10000 hectares, equivalent to one sixth of Singapore’s land area, will flow into the reservoir, forming the largest of Singapore’s water catchments and increasing the total catchment area from one-half to two-thirds of the country. Water from the reservoir will be treated to drinking water standards using membrane technology.

But the PUB also hopes the project will attract sporting events and activities – and this is indicative of how Singapore has been getting the water conservation message through to its citizens. The approach has centered around encouraging Singaporeans to enjoy water, rather than sounding out any harsh warnings.

The recently-launched Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC) programme aims to create a respect for water by turning Singapore, already an aesthetically-pleasing island, into a ‘city of gardens and water’.

“Projects will be looked at to transform them into more than just a river or a canal,” says Yap Kheng Guan, director of the PUB’s 3P (people, private and public) network department, adding that a “nationwide effort” is required to do this.

Digging deep

In order to upgrade its sewerage infrastructure in line with PUB’s strategy, Singapore conceived the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS) as a long-term solution for used water collection, treatment and disposal to serve a developing city.

The project is being implemented in phases, and consists of two large, deep tunnels crisscrossing the island, two centralised water reclamation plants, deep sea outfalls and a link sewer network. The tunnels mark the deepest point in Singapore, deeper even that the city’s MRT (mass rapid transit) system.

The DTSS will be constructed in two phases. The first phase of the project, being implemented now, comprises of 48 km of tunnels stretching from Kranji in the north to Changi in the east; a 800000 m³ per day water reclamation plant with a 5 km long sea outfall at Changi and some 50 km of link sewers. It is scheduled for completion in 2008.

The second phase will consist of a deep tunnel to Tuas in the west, a water reclamation plant there with sea outfall into the Straits of Singapore, link sewers and an extension to the Changi water reclamation plant. This phase will be implemented after the first phase, when there is a requirement to handle more used water arising from developments.

Desal on demand

Desalination is another of the methods the PUB decided to look at to address water shortages – and it was delivered with spectacular success.

Singapore spent US$132 million on building its first desalination plant at Tuas. The SingSpring plant, which operates right on the border with Malaysia, was launched in September 2005, some three months ahead of schedule, making it briefly the largest operating desalination plant in the world at the time.

The contract to build, own and operate (BOO) the plant was awarded to local firm Hyflux. It now supplies around 136380 m³ of desalinated water per day, and last year even scooped the distinction award for the desalination plant of the year at the Global Water Awards for its contribution to the advancement of the international desalination industry.

Freddy Soon, senior vice president for corporate services at Hyflux, said, “We can be self-sufficient if we double the size of this plant. Desalination is becoming cheaper and cheaper thanks to membrane technology.” Soon says the cost at which SingSpring’s desalinated water is sold to the PUB is 78 Singaporean cents (US $0.51 per m³), making it the “cheapest desal in the world”.

Expansion of either desalination or NEWater capacity should not be hard. “A desal or NEWater plant can be built in a period of 12-18 months. We can build these plants on demand,” said Khoo.
Crossing the causeway

Whilst desalinated water and NEWater are each said to cater for approximately 10% of demand in Singapore, the PUB is a little vague regarding how much water is imported from the southern Malaysian state of Johor. The water is imported through large pipelines across the 2 km causeway that separates Singapore from Malaysia. It is clear, however, that the PUB is targeting self-sufficiency.

There are presently two agreements in place. A 1961 contract gives Singapore rights to extract around 390000 m³ per day from Mount Pulai and the Tebrau and Skudai rivers. Additionally, under an agreement signed in 1962, Singapore is able to draw up to 1136500 m³ from the Johor river and Linggui reservoir.

The first agreement will expire in 2011 and the second in 2061. Negotiations on a new agreement have proven difficult in the past but at the rate Singapore is developing its water infrastructure, an extension of the agreement seems unnecessary. “With the strategy which we have, we are not planning to renew the contract in 2061 – we could be self-sufficient by then and not need to import,” said Khoo.

Exporting innovation

Singapore’s turnaround has been by marked by the IWA’s decision to set up a regional office on the island in June at the time of its conference. Further recognition came when the PUB won the Stockholm Industry Water Award for 2007, which recognises innovative development of water and wastewater process technologies.

“Singapore has provided a shining example for the early adoption of new technologies, of encouraging new research and private participation in the applications,” said IWA president David Garman. “This is all high-risk despite the best planned projects. It is outside the comfort zone of most operating authorities and requires both political support and changes in institutional culture.”

Glen Daigger, senior vice president and chief wastewater process engineer at CH2M HILL, agreed that the gamble has paid off. “You wish the innovation that occurred in Singapore could be present in other places. We can’t promote innovation without space for risk – risk and opportunity go hand in hand,” he said.

In fact, with the water industry which has now evolved in Singapore, the PUB is looking to export its innovation and has set up a subsidiary called Singapore Utilities International (SUI), which will work with local companies on overseas projects.

The future looks bright. Singapore has negotiated impending free trade agreements with high-population countries such as China and India, something which will further encourage international water companies to set up on the island and use Singapore as a test-bed for their technologies destined for the rest of Asia. Some 15% of the world’s publicly listed water companies are already listed on the Singapore Exchange, according to the Singapore Economic Development Board, for whom water is a strategic sector.

Singapore now wants to reduce its per capita water consumption down from 158 litres per day in 2006 to 155 litres per day by 2012. It is worth noting that the figure stood at 176 litres per day in 1994.

It is good to see a country taking such positive action on water issues. And let’s face it – there are plenty of countries with more pressing shortages than Singapore. Delegates at the IWA conference rated the Singapore model as one of the best in the world. Water professionals from the Middle East could do a lot worse than pay a visit.