NO.423 Author: Nan Xinyi
Draft: Wind Listener Audio: Sindiv
The Nanyang island nation of Singapore often has short showers, and after the rain washes away, the streets are flooded with greenery, flowers and rivers and water berths, making the whole city look vibrant and full of new ideas. In such a scenario, it is difficult to imagine that this is a country with extremely scarce fresh water resources.
"Garden City" Singapore. Source. Pexels
Geo Valley FM-423 Audio: 00:0000:00
Located near the Strait of Malacca, Singapore is dominated by a tropical rainforest climate zone with an annual precipitation of up to 2350 mm, making it arguably the least water-scarce area. But for Singapore, which has an area of only 697 square kilometers, so much rain is just a rush. Singapore does not have a complete solitary river, and there is a lack of lakes of sufficient volume. The fresh water that falls from the sky during the rainy season every year can only become stagnant water and flow away in vain, and cannot be collected and used.
Marina Bay Source.redants.sg
Therefore, Singapore pays special attention to water resources, and it calls every drop of water within the national territory water resources. The country does not have strict water conservation areas, only catchment areas that are connected to the ditches and rivers in the various areas. The Marina Bay Inner Lake, formed by the waterfront embankment and the seawater partition, is one of them, surrounded by Singapore's most prosperous business district, full of high-rise buildings, people live by the water, living by the water.
Raffles Place, a riverside high-rise city in Singapore. Source. Pexels
However, watersheds are not enough, Singapore's geological conditions are fragile, the country has faced land subsidence problems for decades, and seawater is often backfilled. A little fresh water was stored in the small river, and it was quickly polluted by the seawater. The sky can not be retained, the ground can not drink, the appearance of Singapore's per capita water resources is only 211 cubic meters, the world's penultimate, compared with the next Malaysia more than 20,000 cubic meters is simply a small witch.
Fast forward to 1819, when the Englishman Stanford Raffles designated the area along the southwestern Singapore River along the barge docks as a Chinese settlement. At that time, there was no water supply in Singapore, and the water needed for the whole island had to be pumped from wells in An Cheung Shan and Spiling Street and transported to the city by ox cart. Therefore, this area where water is supplied by oxcart water is called chinatown water.
Night view of Chinatown Source.visitsingapore.com
It was not until 1823 that Crawford, Singapore's second British resident, had proposed the construction of a cistern and water supply system. But the proposal was shelved until the Chinese philanthropist Chen Jinsheng donated 13,000 yuan in 1857 to fund the construction of the Mailich Reservoir. Although Chan's donation has brought more attention to the water source issue, the reservoir construction plan was delayed until Singapore experienced a severe drought a few years later.
The Tan Kim Son Fountain Tower in Singapore Waterfront Park was built by the Singapore Government to commemorate Tan Kim Sing's contribution to Singapore's first water supply system. Source. Pexels
However, with the large increase in the number of foreigners after the end of World War II, only one reservoir could not meet the problem of drinking water for so many people. Singapore really can't help it, or find your next-door neighbor Malaysia to buy water.
In 1961, the Government of the Autonomous States of Singapore and the Government of Johor State on the other side signed a Water Supply Agreement under which Singapore could pump unlimited water from the Pulai Reservoir, the Tiburao River and the Skulai River every day for a period of 50 years, and this agreement expired in 2011. In 1962, Singapore again signed a 99-year water supply agreement with Johor, which gave Singapore the right to pump up to 250 million gallons of water from the Johor River every day. At the same time, Singapore will provide treated clean water to Johor, which can draw up to 2% of the total water volume drawn from Johor within 24 hours.
Under the two agreements, Johor sent 350 million gallons of raw water to Singapore every day, at a price of RM3 per 1,000 gallons, solving about half of Singapore's water shortage. In 1963, Singapore simply joined Malaysia and could drink water for free.
In 1963, Singapore suffered a drought and the Mailage Reservoir dried up. As a result, the government implemented water production activities for 10 months from 23 April 1963. At that time, the water source was cut off three to four days a week, and the maximum time was 12 hours. Singaporeans must carry buckets and washbasins to the public water on the street to queue up for water. Water production activities ended on February 28, 1964. Source.mothership.sg
Singapore and the southern part of Johor Bahru in Malaysia suffered a severe drought in 1962, with no rain for several months and a dry patch everywhere. The picture shows Lee Kuan Yew (first from right) inspecting the water level of the reservoir at that time. Source. Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao
In 1965, Malaysia's relations with Singapore broke down and Singapore split up. On 9 August 1965, Singapore seceded from Malaysia and became a sovereign and independent republic. The Singapore Independence Agreement 1965 states that the Malaysian government must ensure that the Johor state government complies with the terms of the two water supply agreements, while the Singapore government must ensure that the Public Utilities Board adheres to the same provisions, which is also filed with the United Nations.
Singapore's rapid development under the leadership of Lee Kuan Yew, the economy soon surpassed Malaysia, and the psychological imbalance between the two sides of the strait was thus created. Malaysia began to make a fuss about the water supply agreement, accusing both agreements of being signed under the influence of British colonialists and that the content of the agreement was too biased in favor of Singapore. For example, at the time of the agreement, Johor had no water plant to process raw water, and could only export raw materials to Singapore, which treated the raw water and then bought it back. At that time, the price of raw water in Johor was 3 cents per 1,000 gallons, and the buyback price of water bought from Singapore was 50 cents per 1,000 gallons. Some media broke the news that between the tap water every year, Singapore earns a net of 600 million US dollars, and the added value of industry is all occupied by Singapore, which is more and more provoking the nerves of the Malaysian government.
The water pipeline between Singapore and Malaysia is sourced from .fortunetime.sg
However, Singapore was not moved, insisting that the agreement had been signed and could not be regretted, and pointed out that the lack of water purification technology in Johor was Malaysia's own responsibility, and Singapore provided human power to help deal with raw water to earn some labor costs, and there was no problem of fraud in Malaysia. The two sides could not resist fighting each other's war of words, and once wanted to make trouble with the international court, until the 90s ushered in a turnaround.
In 1990, the Public Utilities Board and Johor signed an agreement to build the Lam Kwai Dam at Singapore's expense. The dam was built and operated at a cost of $300 million, the facilities are owned by Malaysia, while the Singapore Public Utilities Board's Johor River Water Plant is built downstream of the Johor River. Due to the win-win situation, the dispute over water supply in Singapore and Malaysia has temporarily eased.
The PUB (Public Utilities Authority) is a statutory committee under the Department of Sustainability and environment (MSE). It is the National Water Agency that manages Singapore's water supply, catchment and water use in an integrated manner. From 2020, the Utilities Authority also assumed the responsibility of a national coastal protection agency to protect Singapore's coastline from sea-level rise. Source. Pexels
The Lim Kwai Reservoir is johor's main source of raw water, and the waters here touch the lifeblood of the people of Shin-Kyu. To ensure the sustainability of water sources, Singapore has so far spent S$1 billion to help secure water sources there, with the Lim Kwai Dam being the largest project. The project not only maintains the stability of the water source, but also ensures the water storage capacity of the Lingui Reservoir. Currently, more than half of Singapore's water use comes from the Johor River and 17 cisterns throughout Singapore.
Lin Gui Reservoir Source. Pexels
However, Singapore's hard work has not been able to resolve the water dispute with Malaysia. This situation was even more serious during Mahathir's administration, when Singapore and Malaysia repeatedly quarreled over water supply agreements, and the Malaysian government always talked about the problem of water purification price differences, demanding that Singapore spend more money and make less money. Mahathir even believes that the price of water for 3 cents per 1,000 gallons is almost equal to free water supply to Singapore, so he asked for an increase in the price of water. Singapore explained that as the country's industrial costs have risen, the 50 cents per 1,000 gallons that year has long been upside down, so it does not accept Malaysia's proposal. The issue of water supply renewals has been put aside for the time being.
In the 21st century, Johor's water sources are beginning to be threatened by pollution due to industrial development, and whether Johor can continue to guarantee water supply has touched the nerves of Singapore. In addition, Singapore and Malaysia may have a more persistent hot climate in the future, which will inevitably affect the supply of water. Singapore's daily water demand is 430 million gallons, which is expected to double to around 860 million gallons by 2060 as the population grows and economic development needs. That said, in 40 years, Singapore's water supply would have to double to meet the water consumption at that time.
In addition, the water supply agreement signed by Singapore and Malaysia in 1962 will expire in 2061, which will also lead to more uncertainty about Singapore's water supply situation. Challenges have forced Singapore to refocus on access to water. Lee Kuan Yew thinks every day about how to make a small country like Singapore self-sufficient. At that time, the feasible solution was to recycle the wastewater.
As early as 1974, Singapore's first experimental water recycling plant was set up in Jurong. However, at that time, the technical cost of purifying wastewater was too high and unstable. It was not until 2002 that the Singapore Public Utilities Authority officially launched the reclaimed water program and named the water that had undergone secondary sewage treatment "NEWater", which means "new water". Forced by the water shortage crisis, Singaporean scientists have successfully brought the quality of reclaimed water to world-class drinking water standards.
In 2002, singapore's 37th national day, Prime Minister Wu Zuodong was the first to drink reclaimed water, and announced that the drinking water of Singaporeans in the future is a mixture of new life water and tap water, which sensationalized the world. Source.toutiansg.com
The so-called new water is through the use of advanced microfiltration, reverse osmosis membrane, ultraviolet sterilization and other technologies to further purify the government's unified centralized treatment of life, industrial sewage, the formation of high-quality pure water. Most of the new water is used for industrial production, and a small part is mixed with the raw water of the tap water in the reservoir, and after further processing in the water plant, it is imported into thousands of households through the water pipe to become the drinking water of ordinary people's homes.
Since then, Singapore has continued to increase its weight, building one reclaimed water plant after another. In 2004, two more reclaimed water plants, Bedok and Krani, were put into operation, and before 2007, the third new water plant, Seletar, was officially opened, and the water supply of reclaimed water increased to about 10% of Singapore's total water supply. Since 2010, Changi, the fifth NAS water plant, has also been gradually put into use. It is estimated that by 2060, the year before the end of the water supply contract with Malaysia, reclaimed water will account for 50% to 55% of Singapore's national water consumption.
In 2010, Sembcorp Industries, a subsidiary of Singapore's largest state-owned enterprise, Temasek Holdings, invested US$180 million to build Singapore's largest nascent water plant, Sembcorp Nascent Water Plant. The plant is also currently one of the largest recirculating water plants in the world, currently producing around 230,000 tonnes of nascent water per day and providing about 15% of Singapore's water. But reclaimed water can only meet half of the island's water supply, so Singapore has also turned its attention to desalination.
In 1998, Singapore established the first desalination plant and began to explore desalination. In September 2005, Singapore's first desalination plant, SingSpring, was officially opened to produce 136,000 cubic meters of fresh water per day, marking Singapore's fourth tap. In 2013, the second seawater desalination plant, the Oizumi Seawater Desalination Plant, was completed, producing 318,500 cubic meters of fresh water per day. In 2018, the third seawater desalination plant, Tuas Seawater Desalination Plant, was officially put into operation.
Construction of Keppel Binhai East Seawater Desalination Plant, the fourth desalination plant in Singapore, commenced operations on 29 June 2020 and officially opened on 4 February 2021. This is the country's first large-scale dual-mode desalination plant, which simply treats water from coastal reservoirs when there is plenty of rainfall and extracts water from the Singapore Strait for desalination during the dry season.
The Keppel Marina East Sea Water Desalination Plant is built under the ground, and the roof is a large lawn for the public to engage in leisure activities. Source.kercorp.com
Binhai East's new water plant saves up to 15% of energy compared to previous desalination plants, and it is also the smallest desalination plant in Singapore with an area of just 2.8 hectares. The new plant adopted innovative approaches, such as replacing traditional chlorine disinfection with ultraviolet light as the main sterilization method, thus saving the space occupied by chlorine ponds. On 17 April this year, the Jurong Island Desalination Plant opened, becoming the fifth desalination plant in Singapore. Desalinated seawater is expected to meet at least 30% of Singapore's water supply needs in 2060.
As early as 2002, the Singapore Public Utilities Board proposed the "Four National Taps" scheme, which flexibly utilizes local rainwater, Malaysian imports, nascent water and desalinated seawater as Singapore's future four water sources.
"Four big water pipes" source.www.pub.gov.sg
In 2006, Singapore also proposed the "ABC (Active, Beautiful, Clean, meaning active, beautiful, clean) water sharing for all" plan, the first phase of this plan is to develop 17 reservoirs, 32 major rivers in Singapore, and build wetland parks and other facilities to conserve water. Under this scheme, in addition to manufacturing reclaimed water, Singapore is also further developing desalination technology, and it is expected that desalination and reclaimed water combined will reach 80% of Singapore's water supply by 2060.
Landscape screen
Distribution of 17 reservoirs in Singapore (red part is residential)
On the other hand, Singapore is also constantly raising the awareness of water conservation among the people, calling on residents to save 10 liters of water every day. In order to reduce the water consumption of residents, Singapore has also developed an efficient tap water transmission and calculation system to continuously reduce the water consumption of residents, and plans to reduce singapore's per capita water consumption to 140 liters per person per day by 2030. Singapore also raised water prices in 2017 and 2018 respectively, and imposed a water-saving tax to strengthen Singaporeans' awareness of water conservation. Therefore, "water conservation" has become Singapore's "fifth water pipe".
Source. Pexels
While Singaporeans are solving their own drinking problems, Malaysia, the freshwater supplier next door, is not "idle". Malaysia previously had to buy treated water from Singapore because it did not have fresh water treatment capacity. By 2002, the Johor state government announced it would establish its own freshwater treatment plant and would stop buying back water from Singapore. The original business relationship has become a relationship of singapore's complete dependence on Malaysia, malaysia is even more threatening to raise the price of water, once Singapore has any dissatisfaction, Malaysia immediately threatens to cut off the water.
In the face of such unreliable suppliers, Singapore can only prepare with two hands, on the one hand, negotiating with Malaysia to try to appease Malaysia; on the other hand, it has more contact with Indonesia and is ready to buy water from Indonesia. In June 1991, Singapore and Indonesia reached an agreement stipulating cooperation on the supply and distribution of freshwater for a period of 50 years. Singapore will receive fresh water from the Indonesian island of Bintan at a price of 1 cent per cubic meter. However, the water purchase plan was once affected by the Asian financial crisis and the domestic political turmoil in Indonesia at that time, and now the plan is still in the experimental stage due to the huge cost and high difficulty of the project.
Bintan is one of the indonesian islands, the largest island in the Riau Archipelago, mentioned as early as the 15th century in the records of Zheng He's voyage to the West. Source. Pexels
However, thanks to Singapore's efforts, Singapore's dependence on Malaysia's water resources has decreased in recent years, and the suspicion and friction between the two countries on water resources has decreased, which has made the relationship between the two countries better, and Malaysia no longer dares to casually despise Singapore. Desperate to survive, Singapore finally got rid of the title of water-poor country and became one of the world's top two water powers.
References: A Catalogue of Water Events. Four National, Taps-PUB; Singapore Infopedia: Water shortages and rationing in Singapore; Implications of Singapore's Water Industry Leapfrog Development. Wang Kaijun
* This article is provided by the author and does not represent the position of Geo Valley