PUB's Marina Barrage, technology win awards

Jaslene Pang Business Times 29 Jun 10;

COMPANIES and government entities were flying their flags high during the World Cities Summit and the Singapore International Water Week events yesterday, unveiling a host of cutting-edge technological solutions.

National water agency PUB had its Marina Barrage, which was crowned winner of the 2010 International Water Association's (IWA) Asia Pacific Regional Project Innovation Awards in the Design category.

Its technology - dubbed as Variable Salinity Plant - was also declared winner of the Applied Research category in the same competition.

The Variable Salinity Plant harnesses water from the remaining streams and rivulets near the shoreline.

Both the Variable Salinity Plant and Marina Barrage - which creates the Marina Reservoir - are part of PUB's innovative solutions to meet the country's challenge in ensuring water sustainability.

Apart from recognition, the World Cities Summit and the Singapore International Water Week events at Suntec also saw various collaborations come to life.

One such collaboration is the one between the Waste Management and Recycling Association of Singapore (WMRAS), the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) and the National Environment Agency (NEA). The trio signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) yesterday.

The MOU aims to establish a Training, Advisory and Promotion (TAP) Centre for Environment and Waste Management in Singapore.

The TAP Centre - which is expected to be ready next year - will be a key hub for sustainable waste management in Asia, where it will serve as a depository of knowledge and data and catalyst for regional collaboration and public-private partnerships in the region.

Another collaboration was that between Siemens Water Technologies in Singapore and the PUB on a membrane bioreactor (MBR) testing facility at PUB's Changi Water Reclamation Plant.

The one-million-litre-per-day MBR system treats domestic waste water at the Changi plant. This is part of the first phase of the Singapore Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS) project. The test facility will allow Siemens' research and development personnel to validate new design parameters quickly under real conditions.

Besides the collaboration, Siemens also showcased various other technologies. The technologies included those which Siemens provided the Changi water reclamation plant with - the DualAir fine-bubble and WideBand coarse-bubble diffuser systems to aerate waste water for secondary treatment.

In addition, Siemens provided the plant with 464 chain and scraper mechanisms for 48 stacked clarifiers, which treat waste water with a reduced footprint.

Siemens also said that it supplied seven Memcor CP membrane filtration trains that consist of 960 membranes each for the Changi NEWater plant. The membranes will pre-treat feedwater going to the reverse osmosis system.

The NEWater plant started its first phase in May. The total production capacity will expand to 228,000 cubic metre per day when the plant is completed, making it the largest in the region.

As part of Siemens' South-east Asia regional expansion, service branches have been located in Southeast Asia countries, with headquarters in Tuas.

'Our activities on the Changi plants with PUB ... illustrate the latest in technology and sustainable water treatment solutions,' said Chuck Gordon, president and CEO of Siemens Water Technologies.

Penalise those who waste water
Water Ministers' Forum says realistic pricing should discourage abuse
Victoria Vaughan Straits Times 29 Jun 10;

CALLING for penalties on water wastage, experts at the opening of the first Asia-Pacific Water Ministers' Forum yesterday said that water should be seen as an economic resource and its pricing should discourage abuse.

Speaking at the gathering of 13 ministers at Suntec City, Dr Noeleen Heyzer, executive secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, called for financial penalties for those who waste water.

'To minimise wastage and increase efficiency in water use, we need to charge the real costs of providing water.

'We need to introduce progressive pricing policies that on the one hand recognise the basic need of water for human existence and, on the other, progressively charge those who overuse or waste it.

'This would encourage households, industries and agriculturists to be more eco-efficient in using water,' she said, adding that funds raised could be directed to fixing up water infrastructure as between 30 per cent and 70 per cent of drinking water in the region is unaccounted for partly due to leaking pipes.

Dr Heyzer's sentiments were echoed by Mr Loic Fauchon, president of the World Water Council, who said that better management of water could be achieved through tariffs.

Mr Arjun Thapan, special senior adviser in infrastructure and water at the Asian Development Bank, said there were nine countries considered as water- stressed in Asia, including China and India, and therefore representing more than half the world's population.

He urged the ministers to view water as a business and to let water agencies act independently, adding that if Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, can have world-class water systems so can the rest of the Asia-Pacific region.

Singapore's Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim said that 'we price our water to recover the full cost for producing and supplying it'. He added that a water conservation tax meant that the more you consume, the higher that tax would be.

Speaking after the meeting, he said he did not think the tax would need to be raised but that demand would have to be managed and it was important for households and industry to be frugal when using the nation's water.

There was also a fresh call to meet the Millennium Development Goals to halve the proportion of people without access to clean water and basic sanitation by 2015. Globally, almost one billion people lack clean drinking water and 2.4 billion people have no access to hygienic sanitation facilities, with 1.2 billion lacking any sanitation facilities at all.

Madam Erna Witoelarm, vice-chair of the Asia-Pacific Water Forum governing council, said that reaching the Millennium Development Goals is not a question of possibility but a matter of will. 'To formulate and implement solutions in a timely and pragmatic manner will require significant investment and this would need a strong political will,' she said, urging ministers to push water security up the national agenda.

PUB scores on innovation
Straits Times 30 Jun 10;

NATIONAL water agency PUB has won big at this year's International Water Association's Asia-Pacific Project Innovation Awards.

Its Marina Barrage project bagged an award for design, while its research on variable salinity plant technology won in the applied research category, the association said in a press release.

Both initiatives are examples of Singapore's success in water management, it said. The barrage greatly reduces flooding, provides a key source of reliable fresh water, and creates a recreational activity area.

The variable salinity plant, the first of its kind in the world, can treat both fresh water and sea water.

The awards will be given out tonight at a dinner ceremony at the Singapore Flyer.