Singapore Water

Singapore Water

Of one day, the total population in Singapore consumes 300 million US gallons of water (One U.S. gallon equals 3.785 x 10-3 cubic meter), of which water supplies came from 4 sources, Catchment, Imported, NEWater, and Desalinated water.

Catchment water
Catchment water is the water collected from rainfall across Singapore. The reservoirs have been located about half of the Singapore surface area. Moreover, there is a proposal for a huge reservoir to be built in 2009 at Marina Bay, which could lead the reservoirs area to be two-third of the total island area. Now, the weight of water consumption from catchment is accounted for 50 % of total consumption.

Imported Water
Apparently, water is worth invaluable in Singapore, as the island is insufficiently supplied by its own available resources. Consequently, external support is vital. Malaysia has been playing an important role in each and individual Singaporean’ lives, which is to give water support to Singapore. Nearly 50% of everyday water consumption is imported from Malaysia. Analyzing the weakness of Singapore, water has always been used as a threat to Singapore in any conflicts.

Desalinated Water
Due to the obvious weakness of Singapore, the government has been trying to push up any new water project as to increase her independency of water resources in the island. September 13, 2006, Singapore opened Asia’s largest desalinated plant in Tuas. This new plant will be able to supply 30 million US gallons, which equals 10% of the total consumption.

NEWater
The plant is to turn the used water into new usable water, as its name referred. 94% of its water is used to supply for industrial use, while another 6% will come to daily consumption. The process has gone through 4 stages to finalize NEWater product.

Stage 1 ( Microfiltration ) : The water pipe will trap the polluted particles like viruses , bacteria , etc and allow only the salts and organic molecules to go through the membrane.

Stage 2 ( Reverse Osmosis ) : This stage allows only as small as water molecules to go through .

Stage 3 ( UV purification ) : At this stage , the UV disinfection will make sure the water is 100% clean .

Stage 4 : Water is readjusted to have a neutral PH and minerals are added into the water .