WATER SUPPLY IN SINGAPORE (Plans to achieve self-sufficiency)

The following Question stood in the name of Mr Noris Ong Chin Guan -

Mr Noris Ong Chin Guan: To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry in relation to the supply of water to Singapore, whether his Ministry has any plans to achieve a breakthrough in gaining greater self-sufficiency.

Mr Tay Beng Chuan asked the Minister for Trade and Industry what is the Government's water strategy in the face of an imminent threat of water cut-off from the external supply sources and what is the progress of the proposed seawater desalination plant projects.

Mr Goh Chong Chia (Nominated Member): Question No. 7, Sir.

BG George Yong-Boon Yeo: Mr Speaker, Sir, with your permission, I would like to answer Question Nos. 7 and 8 together.

Mr Speaker: Yes.

BG George Yong-Boon Yeo: There is no threat of water cut-off from Malaysia. Our water agreements with Malaysia are for the long term. In fact, we are negotiating for an extension to the water agreements, and for an increase in the long-term supply of Malaysian water.

We ensure that our water strategy is robust by diversifying our sources. This includes both local sources as well as sources outside Singapore. To maximise water yield, we have invested heavily in pollution control to protect our local catchments. As a result, 50% of our land area is currently used as catchments. Over the next 10 years, we can increase this further to 65%, which will increase the yield proportionately.

We have also invested heavily in infrastructure to collect and treat all water used in Singapore before discharging it into the sea. Because this water is already being treated to a very high standard, it is a huge untapped source of fresh water for Singapore. With further treatment, most of this water can be re-used.

The re-use of treated water is not new. In countries with long riverine systems, upstream communities use the water and discharge the used water after treatment back into the river. Successive downstream communities then reuse the water several times, before the river finally flows into the sea. Examples include the Mississippi, the Thames, the Rhine and so on.

At present we recycle only about 5% of our water for industrial use. We will do much more. The Ministry of the Environment is doubling the capacity of its industrial water plant in Jurong to meet the needs of new industries in Tuas and on Jurong Island. Until recently, the constraint to greater recycling was cost. This, happily, is falling rapidly. New technology is producing superior filters and membranes, and this is significantly reducing the cost of micro-filtration and reverse osmosis. It has become economically attractive to recycle used water on a large scale.

We have built a demonstration plant at the Bedok Wastewater Treatment Works, to treat used water to ultra-clean standards. It has now operated for more than six months. The treated water is purer than PUB water and far exceeds WHO drinking water standards. We are ramping up production of this ultra-clean water, which we call NEWater, for those industries which require large quantities of high-grade water, such as wafer fabrication plants. Within 10 years, NEWater to our industries can easily meet 15% of our total water demand in Singapore.

To diversify our water sources further, PUB will proceed with the seawater desalination project. We will install a desalination capacity of 30 million gallons per day by 2005. PUB expects to call tenders for supply of desalinated seawater by the private sector in the second half of this year.

With these developments, our long-term supply of water will be more diversified.

Our rivers, reservoirs, drainage systems and water treatment works should all be managed in an integrated manner to optimize the use of our water resources. They are all parts of the same water cycle. The Government has therefore decided to restructure the PUB by merging the Drainage Department and Sewerage Department of ENV with the Water Department of PUB. The restructured PUB, which will in effect be the water authority, will be placed under the Environment Ministry, instead of MTI. This will take effect from 1st April 2001, subject to the legislation being passed by this House. This will close the loop for water and allow us to take full advantage of advances in water treatment technology.

MTI will establish a new statutory board called the Energy Market Authority of Singapore (EMA) to take over the regulation of the electricity and gas industries which come under PUB today.

Mr Goh Chong Chia (Nominated Member): Sir, I understand that 25% of our water could be collected locally. With two metres of rainfall a year in Singapore, it is 1.2 billion cubic metres of water and our annual requirement is only 480 million cubic metres. Why is it not enough to collect water locally?

BG George Yong-Boon Yeo: Mr Speaker, Sir, I have got to look at the Member's calculations. As far as I can remember, even if we were to collect every drop of rain that falls in Singapore, it is still not enough to meet our needs. That is why we require fairly large catchments in Malaysia.

Dr Vasoo: Sir, can I ask the Minister when does he expect us to be able to be self-sufficient in water? And what other contingency measures do we have to meet the water problems?

BG George Yong-Boon Yeo: Sir, our objective is not to become self sufficient in water. We have good water from Malaysia, which we expect will continue for a long, long time to come. Of course, we supplement those sources with local supply by various technological means.