A0103700A

WANG WEIXIN

Objective
As the root of life, water is the basic and one of the most important needs for human being.
Singapore is lack of fresh water supply to her residents. The water supply will be cut off by
the neighbour country Malaysia after the water supply contract end. Thats why Singapore
has to put in a lot effort to develop the NEWater programme. The NEWater Technology is the
only way out for Singapore to survive by herself. It determines the suitability of using
NEWater as a source of raw water to supplement Singapore's water supply.

Strategies and actions taken

To achieve the objective during the developing of the technology, some actions were taken
such as:

1. Singapore has two separate systems to collect rainwater and used water. Rainwater is
collected through a comprehensive network of drains, canals, rivers, storm-water
collection ponds and reservoirs before it is treated for drinking water supply. This
makes Singapore one of the few countries in the world to harvest urban storm-water
on a large-scale for its water supply.
2. Local catchment water is a pillar of our sustainable water supply. Since 2011, the
water catchment area has been increased from half to two-thirds of Singapores land
surface with the completion of the Marina, Punggol and Serangoon Reservoir.
3. With all the major estuaries already dammed to create reservoirs, PUB aims to
harness water from the remaining streams and rivulets near the shoreline using
technology that can treat water of varying salinity. This will boost Singapores water
catchment area to 90% in the long term.

Result
The evolution of NEWater has spanned over a period of three decades although it may sound
like an overnight success for Singapore. There were challenges and hardships during the
technology developing.

A Singapore success story and the pillar of Singapores water sustainability, NEWater is high-
grade reclaimed water produced from treated used water that is further purified using
advanced membrane technologies and ultra-violet disinfection, making it ultra-clean and safe
to drink.

In 2010, Singapores latest and largest NEWater plant was completed. Together, Singapore's
four NEWater plants can meet up to 30% of the nations current water needs.

By 2060, Singapore plan to expand the current NEWater capacity so that NEWater can meet
up to 55% of our future water demand.

Singapore will not rely on other parties help on water supply, as they can support themselves
by NEWater.
A0103700A
WANG WEIXIN

Lessons learned
Water is precious resource given by the earth, it is most basic need but also most important to
everyone. However nowadays, people have ruined the river, the sea and the ocean. Polluted
waste water was implant into the clean river by the factories. More and more clean water
were coloured by the industries. The drinkable water in the planet we lived is only 2.53%
out of the whole water resource. And this 2.53% were polluted to reduce further smaller
number for these recent decades. We must protect our planet resources not only water but also
the others resources such as the air, the land and the earth. We cannot wait till one day that we
have no clean resource, we must cherish what we have now.

Challenges overcome
At the beginning of the programme, Singapore has to build the reservoir to collect water and
keep the rain fall water. Rain fall collect system was implanted at the HDB rooftop. To make
sure every drop of rainfall water was collected into the reservoirs.

During the developing of the technology, a fish study was used to test the cleanness of the
NEWater. To ensure that NEWater was of the highest quality, a comprehensive water
sampling and analysis programme was implemented, with quality standards benchmarked
against the WHO Drinking Water Guidelines and United States Environmental Protection
Agency Drinking Water Standards.

There was a period of time in Singapore, people cannot accept to drink the sewage water,
they believed that the NEWater was collected from the wasted water (unclean water). They
refuse to use and consume this NEWater. The government had to give them confidence by
take the lead to drink the NEWater in front of public. To make sure the public can accept the
technology of NEWater.

A suitable development project

Every country in the earth is developing by his own path, the environment is ruining and the
nature has become unhealthy where we live. The water needs for human being is getting
greater as the population is keep growing every year. NEWater technology will be used for
other country if we are not stopping ruin our environment. It will be widely used for us due to
no clean water supply by the nature. Singapore has to develop this technology because
Singapore has no own self water supply. But for other countries, if protection action of clean
water is not taken, then soon or later, the NEWater technology will and must use for survive
the people with clean water in further. We must protect the nature not only just the water
resource, but also the others like the plants, the air, the animals and the earth etc.
A0103700A
WANG WEIXIN

References
http://www.pub.gov.sg/about/historyfuture/Pages/NEWater.aspx

http://www.pub.gov.sg/water/Pages/singaporewaterstory.aspx

http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Articles/FromoldwatertoNEWaterthereusechall
enge