The Straits Times / The Business Times News on Hyflux

Govt to pour $1.5b into water-related projects

THE government will invest $1.5 billion in water-related projects over the next two years, after outsourcing $4.5 billion worth of infrastructure projects to the private sector in the last four years.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said at the opening of the SingSpring Desalination Plant at Tuas yesterday evening that Singapore is becoming a centre for the water industry and companies are using Singapore to test out ideas and advance best practices in water resource management, especially for urban environments.

'In the last four years, we have outsourced some $4.5 billion worth of water infrastructure projects, including the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS), Marina Barrage and NEWater Factories, to the private sector,' Mr Lee said. 'We are investing another $1.5 billion over the next two years. The experience gained from these projects will give our companies a competitive edge in the global market.'

Drink to that: The $200m SingSpring plant in Tuas will supply 30m gallons of desalinated water a day to the PUB for 20 years.

The $200 million SingSpring plant, awarded to a Hyflux consortium in 2003, will supply 30 million gallons of desalinated water a day to the Public Utilities Board for 20 years. Desalinated water will add to the existing three water sources - from local catchments, imported water from Johor, and NEWater - and be the so-called Fourth National Tap of Singapore.

After treatment, desalinated water is blended with treated water from the reservoir before it is sent to homes and industries in the western part of Singapore. Residents and businesses in this area started receiving the water progressively from yesterday.

Olivia Lum, chief executive of Hyflux, said it was inevitable that Singapore will have to look to desalination to fix our water supply issue. 'In 1997, just some eight years ago, a dual-purpose desalination and power plant would have cost close to $1 billion using the technology of the day, which was distillation,' she said. 'This old technology also required more land and energy.'

Using membrane technology, the SingSpring facility takes up six hectares of land, Ms Lum said. 'Of greater importance, especially in times of escalating oil prices, is the energy efficiency of a membrane-based desalination plant.'

The SingSpring desalination plant, touted as the world's largest seawater reverse osmosis plant, is one of the government's public-private partnership (PPP) projects.

'PUB has been investing in water technologies and research to meet the increasing demand for water in Singapore,' said PUB chairman Tan Gee Paw. 'Besides our success with NEWater, this strategy has also paid off as technological advancements in desalination have made desalinated water another viable source of water supply for Singapore.'

Besides Hyflux, other Singaporean companies, such as Keppel Engineering, SembCorp and Aromatrix Technologies, have also seized the opportunities and grown, the prime minister said.

'International water companies have also taken advantage of the opportunities and infrastructure to set up business in Singapore,' he said. 'These companies are now partnering PUB in pilot R&D projects and technology test-bedding.'