SIAU MING EN Today Online 12 Jun 16;
SINGAPORE — The Republic’s fifth desalination plant will be able to produce 30 million gallons of water a day and could share a site with an existing power generation plant on Jurong Island.
Speaking to reporters after the launch of the Singapore Water Academy on Tuesday (July 12), Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli noted that a repeated message from this week’s Singapore International Water Week was recognising the challenges arising from climate change.
“More and more of us have recognised the need to have weather-independent, weather-resilient water sources,” he said.
“I’m glad that in Singapore, we have started to have our NEWater plants as well as two desalination plants that have actually helped us in the last two years to mitigate the drought that Malaysia suffered and therefore gave less water to Singapore.”
Singapore has two desalination plants that can produce 100 million gallons of freshwater per day from seawater. This meets almost 25 per cent of the current water demand of 430 million gallons a day.
By 2030, this will go up to 30 per cent. A third desalination plant in Tuas is due to be completed next year, while the fourth desalination plant in Marina East will be built by the end of 2019.
The Government first said it was exploring the development of a fifth desalination plant on Jurong Island in April — just seven months after it announced the construction of the fourth plant — to “further enhance resilience” against extreme weather patterns due to climate change.
Mr Masagos added that because a desalination plant runs on power, it is important for it to be near a power system or grid.
In his speech at the closing session of the Water Leaders’ Summit on Tuesday, he also noted that demand for water engineers and professionals will grow, and they will have to be increasingly trained in cross-disciplines.
To that end, national water agency PUB launched its Singapore Water Academy to serve as a leading institution for learning and to offer specialised programmes for water engineers and professionals, both locally and internationally.
Such an in-house facility is also needed to provide training for the technicians and engineers who are needed as Singapore builds and operates more plants, said Mr Masagos. Over time, the academy can also provide training to foreign counterparts, he added.
The academy, which will be housed at the WaterHub in Toh Guan Road, will start offering courses next year. It will also roll out a Singapore Water Management series — targeting senior utility and industry technical practitioners — that includes courses covering practical, real-life solutions and best practices in urban water sustainability.
5th desalination plant to boost Singapore's water security
Carolyn Khew My Paper 13 Jul 16;
The Tuaspring Desalination Plant located at Tuas will add another 318,500 cubic metres, or 70 million gallons of desalinated water per day to Singapore's water supply.
Singapore will build a fifth desalination plant on Jurong Island to enhance its resilience against the effects of climate change.
Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli announced this yesterday during the closing session of the Water Leaders' Summit held during the Singapore International Water Week.
The new plant will have the capacity to produce 30 million gallons of water per day, he added.
As climate change will bring about calamities, such as prolonged droughts, governments must look at weather-independent and weather-resilient sources, Mr Masagos said.
National water agency PUB is also exploring the feasibility of co-locating the desalination plant next to an existing power plant, he added.
This could help to supply energy needed to run the desalination plant.
Singapore currently imports half its water supply from Malaysia, but by 2060, desalination and Newater are expected to meet up to 85 per cent of its needs.
The Linggiu reservoir in Malaysia helps the Republic to draw water from the Johor River but recent dry weather has caused levels in the facility to drop steadily.
There are currently two desalination plants which can produce 100 million gallons of water a day.
This can meet almost 25 per cent of current demand.
A third plant in Tuas is expected to be built by next year.
The fourth, to be completed in 2019, will have facilities to treat freshwater from Marina Reservoir.
It will add about 30 million gallons of water a day to Singapore's supply.
