September 25, 2002
SingaporeSINGAPOREANS will soon be drinking waste water after the government announced on Wednesday, Sept 25, it will go ahead with plans to pump recycled water into its reservoirs from next February.
The production of so-called 'newater' in resource-parched Singapore is part of the drive to reduce reliance on neighbouring Malaysia, which currently supplies about half its daily water needs.
The government has been on a hardsell campaign in recent months, promoting newater with a series of public seminars, and claiming 98 percent of those who attended were in favour of drinking water reclaimed from sinks, baths and toilet bowls.
More than 650,000 bottles of newater have also been handed out to help people "overcome the psychological barrier" of gulping down recycled water.
From February, the government will begin adding newater to its raw water reservoirs, starting at less than one percent of daily consumption and building up to about 2.5 percent by 2011.
Approval to use newater followed two years of "comprehensive physical, chemical and microbiological analysis," by a panel of experts, the environment ministry and the public utilities board (PUB) said in a joint statement.
It found newater to be "well within the drinking water standards specified by the US Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organisation."
The PUB "accepts and endorses the proposal to use newater for indirect potable use," board chairman Tan Gee Paw said.
"This means mixing and blending newater with raw water in the reservoirs before undergoing conventional treatment at the waterworks for supply to the public for potable use."
Water has been a key irritant in bilateral relations since Singapore was kicked out of the Malaysian Federation and gained its independence in 1965.
Singapore has declared it would be able to let one of two water agreements with Malaysia lapse in 2011, serving notice that it was increasingly becoming self-sufficient in water.
"With newater, we can be better assured that Singapore will, now and in the future, have enough water at an affordable cost to meet all our needs," Environment Minister Lim Swee Say said.
"Newater is a safe, affordable and sustainable source of water supply. It will enable us to be more self-sufficient in water."
Although newater is to be added to drinking water through reservoirs, its primary use will be for direct non-potable commercial use in areas such as wafer fabrication plants, industrial estates and air-cooling systems.
http://www.singapore-window.org/sw02/020925af.htm
It is not widely known be the public that Newater is added to our taps. What effect would it have on those who dislike Newater and do not know about this fact?
ReplyDeleteI think that many people, including my father, will be very angry with the government. However, I think that they should not be as the government has already told the newspaper that it will be added in taps.
ReplyDeleteHowever, younger generations do not know about it (like me) but it should not be much of a problem since many of us are already used to it :)
ReplyDeleteYes. We should get used to the increasing amount of NEWater that it added in the water flowing into our taps and not worry so much about the health risks. Since the Health Promotion Board ha said time and again that NEWater is perfectly face.
ReplyDelete*safe
ReplyDeleteYes and in fact, only less than 2% of NEWater is added to our taps so we could not really taste it
ReplyDeleteSo the health risks, if any, will not be so bad as it is diluted.
ReplyDelete