DESALINATION PLANT

Mr Shriniwas Rai asked the Minister for Trade and Industry if he will give details of the proposed desalination plant in Singapore.

Mr Lee Yock Suan: PUB will be building the first desalination plant in Tuas. It will employ the dual-purpose multi-stage flash (MSF) distillation process, which is a tried and proven technology for large-scale desalination plants. The MSF plant will have a capacity of 30 million gallons (136,000 cubic meter) per day. For greater efficiency, the plant will co-generate electricity, of which about 170 MW will be exported to the electricity grid. The plant is scheduled to be completed by 2005.

In addition, a pilot reverse osmosis (RO) plant, with a capacity of 1 million gallon (4500 cubic meter) per day, will also be built to obtain operating data based on local seawater quality. This will help to optimise the design of any pre-treatment facility which may be required for large-scale RO plants.