George Madhaven
Director (3PN), PUB (Singapore’s National Water Agency) on NEWater

"Singapore is the second densest country in the world. We have 5.4 million people in 716 km2. There is not enough land for us to rely on groundwater sources. We have always had to collect rainwater and import water from Malaysia, but this left us vulnerable to the weather and events beyond our borders.

Our masterplan was the 4 Taps program. In the last decade we have introduced the last two of these ‘taps’ – NEWater and desalination facilities. These are not dependent on weather conditions. We are classified as a water stressed country by the United Nations, and this allows both industry and people not to worry about water, to focus on their lives.

Singapore may be water scarce, but our water programmes have made us attractive to business, because we can guarantee a high quality, very reliable water supply. We can’t afford any interruption to this supply; the jobs of Singaporeans depend on it. So now when you see companies like Rolls Royce in Singapore, our water supply has played a major role in this and all Singaporeans are benefiting.

In the 60s people were very poor. People farmed and defecated right alongside the Singapore River. In 1977 the ministries were challenged to clean the river in 10 years. It was a very big job; we had to re-house those living on the river side while also cleaning up. We dammed the river. By 1987 there were fish in the river again.

We now have two separate systems for collection, because different types of water require different levels of processing: one system for used water [black water] and one for rainwater. We then recycle all this water and use it again.

In the dry season we put NEWater back into the reservoirs to ensure levels are consistent. We use membrane technology, forcing water through a membrane that will only allow the water molecules through, so there’s no chemicals involved. We are researching bio-mimicry to copy the human kidney. It’s the most efficient filtering machine in nature, and we are beginning to understand how it works. We hope that in the next few years we can introduce this.

We built our first desalination plant in 2005, the second in 2013. We do impact studies on the local environment. The Ministry for the environment has guidelines we must adhere to. According to our monitoring the process is sustainable, we are not adding contaminants.

We have public outreach programmes on water from pre-school to university. Water here is scarce. It has a value and we must pay for it. We manage demand. We don’t subsidize water, and everyone pays the same. But no one goes without. We have a water efficient building programme that provides guidelines for construction. We ensure taps and even washing machines are efficient.

We constantly want to learn and develop. Every two years we have Singapore Water Week, and we invite world leaders in Water from around the globe to come to a conference. We have a Water Expo for industry, to show off our water management capabilities and hopefully attract more business. We have a Water Convention which is a platform for water professionals and related businesses, currently in its sixth edition.

NEWater will be the pillar of our water supply for the next 50 years. We have replaced the use of potable water for industry with NEWater. In Singapore we have lots of high impact industry. NEWater already provides 30% of the water they use. By 2060 it will provide 55%. This is significant because our growth will be founded on water from our own catchment. We could not import more water from Malaysia if we wanted to, so NEWater and desalination will only become more important to the people of Singapore. While we are constantly engaged in R & D to bring down the energy required for desalination, NEWater uses only a quarter of the energy of desalination, so that will be most important to us.

We have a NEWater visitor centre¹ now, we’re proud of our work here, you should come and visit."

NEWater was awarded with the Category 2 'Best participatory, communication, awareness-raising and education practices' Water for Life’ UN-Water Best Practices Award in 2014.

>> More information about NEWater

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¹The NEWater Visitor Centre was set up to educate the public on the Singapore water story and the science behind NEWater.