With long-term vision and concerted
planning, Singapore was able to
take a holistic approach in water
management and put in place a longterm
water supply strategy to ensure
water for all. With the Four National
Taps, Singapore is assured of a robust
water supply system.
Today, water demand is about 380
million gallons a day (mgd) or 1,730,000
cubic metres a day (m3/day).
This is
expected to double in the next 50 years,
with about 70% of the demand coming
from the non-domestic sector, and
domestic consumption making up the
other 30%.
Here we lay out some of the longterm
plans already in place to meet
the doubling of water demand. In the
next 10 years, we plan to achieve the
following targets.
FOUR NATIONAL TAPS
By 2060, we plan to triple the current NEWater capacity so that NEWater can meet 50% of our future water demand. We also intend to ramp up desalination capacity by almost 10 times so that desalinated water will meet at least 30% of our water demand in the long term.
All these can be done in a land-efficient manner. The highly-compact designs of the current NEWater and desalination plants can be easily replicated to meet the growing demand for water.
Also, to find more economical and efficient ways to produce and treat water, Singapore will continue to invest in research and development (R&D). For example, the main reason for the higher treatment costs for desalination is due to its intensive energy consumption. Research efforts are ongoing to find ways to reduce the energy consumption so as to lower its overall treatment cost.
These R & D efforts are not only for strengthening our water supply. Globally, Singapore is increasingly seen as a model of sustainable water management and we have been exporting our expertise overseas, besides nurturing a global hub for water technologies here.
The annual Singapore International Water Week, with more than 10,000 delegates each year, is growing from strength to strength.
Our mid-term goal is to grow value-added contribution from the water sector from $0.5 billion (0.3% of GDP) in 2003 to $1.7 billion (0.6% of GDP) by 2015. Jobs for this sector are expected to double to about 11,000 in 2015.
