The Jakarta Post 11 Jul 09;
The sixth century philosopher, Lao-Tzu said, "There is nothing softer and weaker than water, and yet there is nothing better for attacking hard and strong things. For this reason, there is no substitute of it."
Leonardo da Vinci said that water was the driving force of nature.
These two people lived in different times, in places thousands of kilometers apart, but had similar thoughts about water, as an important natural resources on earth.
Singapore, which has limited sources of water, is trying to make the most of them. Not only it collects every drop of water but it also treats used water and turns it into drinking water through the Changi Water Reclamation Plant (CWRP).
The plant is part of the country's Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS) which was conceived to meet Singapore's needs for the collection, treatment and disposal of used water over the next 100 years.
CWRP can treat 800,000 cubic meters or about 320 Olympic size pools of used water daily, said Yong Wei Hin, assistant director of the CWRP of the Public Utilities Board.
DTSS he said, is a 50-kilometer sewerage system running 20 to 55 meters underneath Singapore that links an extensive network of sewers from homes and industries into centralized water reclamation plants.
"The system, which is being developed in two stages, will first convey used water from the northern and eastern parts of Singapore to the CWRP for treatment," said Yong.
The second phase, he added, which will take over 10 to 20 years to implement will then serve the used water needs of the western part of the island republic.
"Treated used water will later be discharged into the Singapore Straits through outfall pipes or channeled to the NEWater plant for further purification," said Yong. NEWater is Singapore's own brand of recycled water.
Yong said the treated used water from CRWP was a vital feedstock for large-scale production of NEWater.
"Singapore's fifth and largest NEWater plant is currently being built on the rooftop of the water reclamation plant, and together with existing plant, the country will have enough NEWater capacity to meet one-third of its water needs by 2010," he said.
By collecting every drop of used water to be treated and purified into NEWater, the DTSS hopes to ensure adequate water supply for Singaporeans for many years to come.
The CWRP plant include a deep pumping station, a sludge dryer and a covered plant with odor control.
Yong said CWRP used technologies ensuring that all processes were environmentally friendly.
Bio-gas produced from the water reclamation process is harvested as fuel to dry up the sludge, a semi-liquid residue from the treatment process. This minimizes the amount of waste produced by the plant.
Yong said there were about 50 local and overseas contractors and consultants, as well as 300 subcontractors and suppliers involved in the construction and engineering of the project.
- Triwik Kurniasari
