Singapore's NEWater
Singapore is a city of superlatives. The affluent city-state has a booming economy with investments pouring in.
It’s also home to one of the world’s best health- and education systems. And it has an enviable reputation as being one of the world’s cleanest and safest cities. All those factors are reflected in Singapore’s architecture - dazzling skyscrapers and luxurious high-rises dot the island city.
But the prosperity and economic boom are unable to mask one of Singapore’s most pressing problems: it simply does not have enough water to meet its needs. The city-state has to import several millions of liters of fresh water from neighboring Malaysia via pipelines. In fact, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has officially classified the island state as “water poor.” Alternatives are urgently needed.
The water Singapore imports from Malaysia makes up around 30 percent of its total supply. With 2.4 meters of precipitation a year and another 30 percent come from the island’s 17 reservoirs. But digging further reservoirs is not feasible because space is at a premium in Singapore. Instead, officials have been forced to find other options. The desalination of seawater is another source of water, but it is cost-intensive and therefore only makes up around 10 percent of Singapore’s water supply. That led the government to launch a project called “NEWater” back in 2003. It involves recycling wastewater to highly purified water, providing a more cost-efficient and eco-friendly solution.
The concept of recycling wastewater certainly isn’t new, with long-running initiatives already well underway in Israel, Spain, Scandinavian countries and the US. But with NEWater, Singapore has quickly gained an international reputation for efficient recycling of wastewater. The initiative already supplies around one third of the country’s water demand, and that number is expected to grow to more than half by the year 2060.
There are now four purification plants across
It’s also home to one of the world’s best health- and education systems. And it has an enviable reputation as being one of the world’s cleanest and safest cities. All those factors are reflected in Singapore’s architecture - dazzling skyscrapers and luxurious high-rises dot the island city.
But the prosperity and economic boom are unable to mask one of Singapore’s most pressing problems: it simply does not have enough water to meet its needs. The city-state has to import several millions of liters of fresh water from neighboring Malaysia via pipelines. In fact, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has officially classified the island state as “water poor.” Alternatives are urgently needed.
The water Singapore imports from Malaysia makes up around 30 percent of its total supply. With 2.4 meters of precipitation a year and another 30 percent come from the island’s 17 reservoirs. But digging further reservoirs is not feasible because space is at a premium in Singapore. Instead, officials have been forced to find other options. The desalination of seawater is another source of water, but it is cost-intensive and therefore only makes up around 10 percent of Singapore’s water supply. That led the government to launch a project called “NEWater” back in 2003. It involves recycling wastewater to highly purified water, providing a more cost-efficient and eco-friendly solution.
The concept of recycling wastewater certainly isn’t new, with long-running initiatives already well underway in Israel, Spain, Scandinavian countries and the US. But with NEWater, Singapore has quickly gained an international reputation for efficient recycling of wastewater. The initiative already supplies around one third of the country’s water demand, and that number is expected to grow to more than half by the year 2060.
There are now four purification plants across