NEWATER (Education on acceptance)

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Mdm Ho Geok Choo asked the Minister for the Environment as the Prime Minister has exhorted us to be less reliant on Malaysia for our future water supply, one alternative source is NEWater where there is some public concern over its quality and hygiene standards of "real" cleanliness, what measures have his Ministry in mind to educate Singaporeans to accept NEWater.

The Minister for the Environment (Mr Lim Swee Say): Mr Speaker, Sir, after two years of comprehensive physical, chemical and microbiological analyses of NEWater, the Panel of Experts formed to study the quality of NEWater has submitted its report to the PUB on 2nd July 2002. The Panel has made public its findings on NEWater at a press conference held last week. Based on some 20,000 test results, the Panel of Experts has concluded that NEWater is safe for drinking. It has met or surpassed all the standards for drinking water set by the World Health Organisation and the US Environmental Protection Agency. In fact, it is even cleaner than PUB water. In line with current practice in the USA on potable use of reclaimed water, the Panel has recommended that NEWater be used for indirect potable use, that is, mixing NEWater with raw water in the reservoirs for further treatment to produce potable water.

PUB is now studying the Experts Panel's report and findings and will make its recommendation to the Government in about two months' time.

A summary of the Experts Panel's report will be made available on PUB's NEWater website to be launched on 1st August 2002.

At the same time, to enhance public understanding of NEWater, PUB has stepped up its public education efforts and will continue to do so in the coming months. PUB has started briefing the grassroots and community leaders a few weeks ago. Our public education programme will cover various areas. For example, to assure the public that NEWater is safe to drink, PUB explains the technology employed in the production of NEWater as well as the quality it is able to attain with NEWater.

At the same time, to help overcome any psychological barrier, PUB explains the experience of the USA in the use of reclaimed water over the last 20-30 years for indirect potable purpose. At two of the briefing sessions I attended personally, 98% of the grassroots and community leaders, having understood the process involved and the quality achieved in NEWater, indicated that they have no problem in drinking NEWater and accepting the idea of indirect potable use of NEWater. The other 2% expressed that they still have some psychological barrier and that they would like to understand the process more before they are ready to fully embrace the idea.

The PUB is now in the process of producing a documentary on NEWater. It will be telecast over the TV channels in August. PUB will make available VCD copies of the NEWater documentary to educational institutions and grassroots organisations.

By early next year, the public can also come to PUB's new Visitors' Centre at Bedok Water Reclamation Plant to see the actual operations of the NEWater plant. They will be able to see at first hand the use of leading edge membrane technology and ultra-violet process in the production of NEWater.

Through these efforts in public education, we are confident that Singaporeans will come to recognise that NEWater is indeed a safe, affordable and sustainable source of water supply for Singapore as we strive for greater self-sufficiency in the future.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo (West Coast): Sir, in the US where water reclamation has been carried out for more than 20 years, only one or two of the three methods that Singapore is using had been used. Why is there a need for us to go through the three processes in Singapore's case?

Mr Lim Swee Say: Sir, the USA started the indirect potable use of reclaimed water in the early 70s. In those days, some of these plants were using traditional filtration method. Over the years, with advances in membrane technology, we are now able to achieve better quality at a lower cost. Technology has now made the production of reclaimed water more efficient and cost-effective. In the USA today, indirect potable use of reclaimed water is a growing trend as more and more cities face the challenge of water shortage. Our understanding is that new water reclamation plants in the USA are increasingly using membrane technology.

The three processes referred by Mdm Ho are what we call the dual-membrane and ultra-violet processes. This combination of processes is gaining popularity. New water reclamation plants in the USA are moving in this direction of adopting dual-membrane and ultra-violet processes. Earlier this year, our NEWater plant was awarded the excellent award by the National Water Research Institution in the USA because we have established a benchmark that is as best as anywhere you can find in the world in terms of our ability to make cost-effective use of technology to produce water quality of the highest standard.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo: Sir, since one of the three methods was assessed to be sufficient to process the water, as in the US case, to what extent would the incremental value be in having all three processes done for Singapore's case?

The second question is: would the additional two or three processes not be adding to the cost of processing the water and who would then be bearing this additional cost?

Mr Lim Swee Say: Sir, firstly, let me explain that even though dual-membrane is a two-step process, it does not necessarily lead to higher cost. Let me explain. With reverse osmosis, we are going to achieve the highest quality of water. What this means is that before the water goes through reverse osmosis, it has to go through a stage of preparation first. The whole purpose of micro-filtration or ultra-filtration used in the first step of membrane application is to filter out bigger size impurities, for example, bacteria. By the time it comes to reverse osmosis, the process will be filtering out, for example, viruses which are much smaller than bacteria, as well as estrogenic compounds which are again much smaller than viruses and bacteria.

Basically, the whole process is to remove impurities in a two-stage approach. In this way, not only will we be able to achieve higher quality water but, at the same time, we will be able to optimise the cost performance of dual membrane. On the whole, it will lead to better cost optimisation.

Secondly, Mdm Ho asked who will bear the additional cost. Sir, I want to emphasise that the introduction of NEWater does not add to higher cost of future water supply in Singapore. In fact, the whole purpose of introducing NEWater is to reduce the increased cost of future supply of water in Singapore. Members of the House will remember that until the concept of water reclamation came about, the next alternative for Singapore was really to go for desalination. I have mentioned in this House on 22nd May 2002 that when you compare the cost of water reclamation - NEWater versus desalination - in terms of capital cost, the cost for NEWater is about half that of desalination. In terms of energy consumption, it is about one-quarter to one-fifth that of desalination. As a result, the total cost of NEWater production is about half that of desalination. In other words, the introduction of NEWater actually helps us to prevent the need to increase the prices of water in the future because with this lower cost alternative, we are now able to better contain the cost of water in the future.

Dr Tan Boon Wan (Ang Mo Kio): Sir, I would like to ask the Minister how soon does he think that the Government will want to use NEWater for domestic purposes.

Mr Lim Swee Say: Sir, as I have mentioned earlier, PUB is now looking into the recommendation by the Experts Panel and PUB expects to put forward its recommendation to the Government sometime in September. Based on PUB's recommendation, the ENV will then work out the introduction plan. At this moment, I would not want to jump the gun because the next step is for PUB to study the recommendation from the Experts Panel carefully so that by the time it comes to a decision, we will be able to move forward with complete confidence.

Dr Lily Neo (Jalan Besar): Sir, may I ask the Minister whether there is any plan to use NEWater directly and whether there is any need to improve the NEWater further by altering the PH of the NEWater after production?

Mr Lim Swee Say: Sir, NEWater will be used in two ways. Firstly, for non-potable use in industry and the commercial sector, NEWater will be used directly. This will begin in January next year.

Dr Lily Neo asked whether there is any need to adjust the PH level of NEWater. The answer is yes, because NEWater is so pure that the PH level at this moment is about 6.2 to 6.5 which is below the neutral level of 7. So what PUB will do is that NEWater, after production, will be stabilised before it is delivered to the wafer fab plants starting in January next year.

The second purpose is for potable use. As I have mentioned earlier, the Experts Panel is recommending that we make use of NEWater for potable use in an indirect manner. This means pumping NEWater into the reservoir and mixing it with raw water in the reservoir. From there, it will be reprocessed again into PUB water.