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In line with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's vision
of Singapore as a City of Gardens and Water, waterways
will be integrated with parks to create new community
spaces and bring waterfront living to the heartlands.
For instance, the Punggol 21+ programme will create
a waterfront town at Punggol by damming up the mouths
of Sungei Punggol and Sungei Serangoon to form freshwater lakes. A man-made river will join up the two
lakes, which will run through the estate and town centre,
creating opportunities for waterside activities.
In terms of water supply, we exceeded our targets
in NEWater production with the opening of our fourth
and largest NEWater plant at Ulu Pandan in March
2007. With this newest plant on board, NEWater can
now meet more than 15% of Singapore's water needs,
surpassing our original target set for 2010.
Several key water projects also made good progress.
The Changi Water Reclamation Plant, the last component of the mammoth Deep Tunnel Sewerage System
project, is on track for completion by next year.
The Marina Barrage construction reached a milestone
with the successful completion of the first four crest gates
in September 2006. When completed by next year, it will
help create Singapore's first reservoir in the city.
On the community front, PUB has been extending
our reach through a variety of creative initiatives.
On World Water Day this year, we launched PURE,
the first lifestyle magazine that revolves around water.
Designed as an easy read for busy people on the go, our
aim is to reach out to young Singaporeans and interest
them in water issues.
To reach out to the heartlanders, we produced our
first TV infotainment programme called The ABCs of
Water on Channel 8 to convey the importance of keeping
our water resources clean. The programme made it to
MediaCorp's Top 10 viewership chart.
PUB's mascot, Water Wally continued to be a hit with
children and adults alike. At the 2006 IWA Marketing
and Communications Awards in Beijing, Water Wally won
the top honours when it was named the Best Promoted
Water Protection Activity or Programme.
Our Annual Report 2004, Water For All and the
NEWater Visitor Centre also garnered the highly recommended awards in the Reports and School Information
Programme categories respectively.
The NEWater Visitor Centre continued to attract
local and foreign visitors and welcomed its 500,000th
visitor in April this year. Revamped last year, its first
visitors when it reopened were the foreign delegates who
were in Singapore for the IMF/World Bank meetings.
In the last year, Our Waters programme saw a
steady stream of adopters coming on board. We now
have 47 Our Waters adopters taking care of 14 waterways and seven reservoirs. Our stable of Friends of
Water also grew in strength to more than 750 as more
people stepped forward to pledge their support for
the water cause.
We also want Singaporeans to go far in
their water conservation efforts. On last
year's World Water Day, Minister Yaacob
Ibrahim urged everyone to take the
10-Litre Challenge, by trying to
save 10 litres of water a day.
In October, we introduced
the Water Efficiency Labelling
scheme, one of the initiatives under
the 10-Litre Challenge to help raise
public awareness on water conservation and encourage more water efficient
products in the market.
The year 2006 ended on a high note when PUB
was conferred the Singapore Innovation Award for our
use of advanced water technologies to meet Singapore's
water challenges and our holistic approach in nurturing
a strong innovation culture within the organisation.
We look forward to more exciting developments
in the rest of 2007 and in 2008. The Singapore International Water Week is a major step in our aim to develop
Singapore as a wellspring of water solutions.
I look forward to seeing you at the Singapore International Water Week 2008.
KHOO TENG CHYE
Chief Executive
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