The Singapore Experience
Yaacob Ibrahim, Straits Times 11 Sep 08;
CITIES today are homes to more people than at any other time in human history. The largest wave of rural-to-urban migration, especially in developing regions, will present cities with many challenges. One is a sustainable and safe supply of water - for, without it, a city cannot function, much less prosper.
How do we manage water resources to keep pace with the economic growth of our cities while ensuring that such efforts are sustainable over the long term? For many governments, finding the right balance between economic growth and the management of water resources is proving to be a tricky challenge.
In view of the need for the world to come together to share expertise in water technologies and governance, the Singapore International Water Week was conceived. It provides a platform for policymakers, industry leaders and experts to address challenges, showcase technologies and discover opportunities. Their insights were distilled in the 1st Singapore International Water Week 'Blue Paper'.
By 2030, analysts project that towns and cities of the developing world will make up 81per cent of the world's total population, creating enormous stress on water and sanitation infrastructure. The problem is not the lack of water but the lack of sound water management practices. The Blue Paper notes that improvements in technology can help but these technological improvements are not translating into practical water solutions for cities because of poor governance.
When Singapore was a fledgling independent state in the 1960s, it recognised that it was critical to place water issues right at the top of the political agenda. As Mr Lee Kuan Yew so aptly put it at the Singapore International Water Week: 'Every other policy has to bend at the knees for our water survival.'
To ensure water sustainability, we looked into developing local sources of water from water catchments, reservoirs, rivers and streams. It was a daunting task in view of the highly urbanised land use. For example, the Singapore River was polluted with industrial and household effluent. In the 1970s, we embarked on an ambitious plan to clean up the river. By the 1980s, it was clean again. More recently, we have dammed up the river, converting it into a reservoir right in the heart of the city centre.� This, among other developments, has made it possible to tap two-thirds of Singapore's limited land area as water catchment.
Given our island's physical constraints, we have to constantly look for new technologies that will assist us in achieving our vision of water sustainability. As early as the 1970s, we recognised the need to look into non-conventional solutions. The technologies we sought had to ensure that our water supply could be expanded and multiplied, while ensuring that the sources as well as the product were of satisfactory quality and safe for use. We experimented with several technologies at that time, but they were at the development stage then and costly.
With improvements in membrane technology in the late 1990s, Singapore revisited the use of this technology. This led to the introduction of Newater, which is produced by further treatment of the effluent from our used-water treatment plants using advanced membrane technologies. With Newater, Singapore has successfully married technology with our comprehensive used-water collection system to produce high-quality water valued by the commercial and industrial sectors.
Newater now accounts for about 15 per cent of Singapore's water demand.� By 2010, we will have five Newater plants. Together, they will be able to meet 30per cent of our water demand.
We will continue to find new and better ways to manage our water resources, and also to work with other countries and organisations to share expertise and good, practical solutions. Currently, the (national water agency) PUB is test-bedding many promising water technologies.
These include a variable salinity treatment plant and membrane distillation. We have also launched a 'challenge call' for breakthrough technologies in seawater desalination. Energy-intensive processes currently inhibit seawater desalination in many developing countries. We have selected a Siemens Water Technologies proposal to develop a treatment process based on a novel electrochemical desalination technology.
�Ensuring an adequate water supply is only half the equation: equally important is managing water demand. The PUB has in place a water demand management programme that incorporates the proper handling of the transmission and distribution network to minimise losses, as well as the implementation of water conservation measures. Singapore's per capita consumption of water in households has dropped from 165 litres a day in 2003 to 157 litres a day now. We have also seen a considerable reduction in the level of unaccounted-for water, from 11per cent in the 1980s to 5per cent today - one of the lowest levels in the world.
Our willingness to work directly with industry partners in seeking solutions has attracted international water companies to conduct research in Singapore and use it as a base for the region.
Today, more than 50 international and local companies have set up operations in Singapore, spanning the entire water value chain. In fact, with the water industry as a promising growth sector, the Government will be further investing $330million over the next five years to promote R&D in water technologies and to support the growth of the water industry.
Every city faces unique challenges in resolving its water problems amid rapid urbanisation and economic growth. The Singapore experience may or may not be applicable elsewhere. But it underscores the point that water resource constraints can be overcome, that practical solutions can be found through a mix of good governance and technologies.
This is an excerpt from a speech delivered by Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim at the Local Governments' Day in Vienna, Austria, on Tuesday. The full text of the speech is available at www.straitstimes.com
