HEALTH IMPACT STUDIES FOR NEWATER

HEALTH IMPACT STUDIES FOR NEWATER

2.

Mr Seah Kian Peng asked the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (a) whether the Government has conducted any health impact studies on the introduction of Newater into our drinking supply; and (b) whether there are any statistics on the water drinking habits of Singaporeans to monitor if more people have been buying bottled water and water filters since the introduction of Newater.

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Assoc. Prof. Dr Yaacob Ibrahim: NEWater is high-grade reclaimed water produced using advanced membrane technologies. As it is ultra-clean and meets the exacting demands of high-end industrial processes such as wafer fabrication, most of our NEWater is supplied to meet industrial demands.

Some NEWater is also injected into local reservoirs for mixing before it is further treated through the conventional water treatment process for potable use. As a source independent of rainfall, NEWater plays an important role in enhancing the resilience of our water supply, and is valuable in supplementing our reservoirs during dry spells, as experienced in February 2010.

Before NEWater was introduced into reservoirs in 2003, a comprehensive study was conducted from 2000 to 2002 to evaluate the physical, chemical and microbiological effects of NEWater. The Expert Panel which reviewed the study comprised local and international experts across multiple disciplines including engineering, water chemistry, toxicology, epidemiology and microbiology. The study concluded that NEWater is safe for human consumption.

There has also been a rigorous monitoring programme to ensure that NEWater exceeds the drinking water standards of the World Health Organisation and US Environmental Protection Agency. The External Audit Panel continues to conduct audits twice a year to ensure consistent high standards of NEWater quality and plant operations.

We do not track the sales of bottled water and water filters. In a public survey conducted in 2009, over 95% of respondents indicated that they drink tap water without further filtration. Bottled NEWater has also been well accepted by the public. Over the last nine years, PUB has met requests to provide about 20 million bottles of NEWater for distribution at community and corporate events. To ensure that this continued high level of public confidence is warranted and sustained, PUB conducts more than 80,000 tests each month over the entire water supply network, comprehensively covering 290 water quality parameters across the range of physical, chemical and biological aspects.

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