PUB to expand groundwater monitoring network

The national water agency said that it plans to install 30 to 40 monitoring wells - boreholes drilled into water bearing soil layers - at Jurong Island and at the Old Alluvium area in eastern Singapore, as well as insert sensors into the monitoring wells to track water level fluctuations.
Channel NewsAsia 26 May 16;

SINGAPORE: National water agency PUB has announced that it plans to expand its groundwater monitoring network, and will call two tenders over the next few months for the installation of additional monitoring wells and sensors.

These wells and sensors will "provide a better understanding of the presence of groundwater in Singapore", PUB said in a press release on Thursday (May 26).

The agency said that it plans to install 30 to 40 monitoring wells - 50mm diameter boreholes drilled into water bearing soil layers - at Jurong Island and at the Old Alluvium area in eastern Singapore, as well as insert sensors into the monitoring wells to track water level fluctuations.

This will enable "islandwide monitoring of Singapore's groundwater situation", said PUB. Previously, the agency has been monitoring groundwater levels at the Jurong Formation in western Singapore through a network of 18 monitoring wells.

Exercises to develop a groundwater model for the Jurong Formation and Old Alluvium are in progress, while a preliminary groundwater model has been developed for Jurong Island, said PUB. The data collected from these groundwater monitoring efforts will allow PUB to validate these models.

“These monitoring efforts are part of PUB’s groundwater studies, which are currently in the exploratory stage involving literature review and preliminary groundwater model development,” said PUB Chief Engineering and Technology Officer Harry Seah,

“Through these efforts, we hope to gain a better understanding of Singapore’s geology and the presence of groundwater within the earth layers.”

- CNA/av