The Straits Times / The Business Times News on Hyflux

PUB, Hyflux, SingSpring win global water awards

SINGAPORE has won three awards at the Global Water Awards 2006 ceremony in Dubai, bearing testimony to the international recognition its water industry has been receiving.

Into the second year, the awards - presented at a ceremony on Monday - are organised by Global Water Intelligence, a monthly electronic newsletter providing analysis and strategic data on the international water market.

The Public Utilities Board (PUB) was named the Water Agency of the Year, an award given out for the first time. Homegrown water treatment specialist Hyflux won the Water Company of the Year award and its SingSpring desalination plant at Tuas was runner-up in the Desalination Plant of the Year category.

Other contenders for the Water Agency of the Year award were Saudi Arabia's Water and Electricity Company, Ofwat from the UK, the Algerian Energy Company, and the Texas Water Development Board.

The organisers of the award said: 'PUB is unrivalled in the scope and quality of its work' and praised its efficient urban water demand management, the use of reclaimed water and the commissioning of the reverse osmosis desalination plant.

Meanwhile, mainboard-listed Hyflux beat companies like Marubeni PPIP from Japan, Shanghai Industrial, Veolia Wasser Deutschland, and Aqua America.

Khoo Teng Chye, chief executive at PUB, said the award 'reminds us that whilst we work at finding low cost-solutions to our water supply, we have a role to play in sharing our experience'.

Through its subsidiary Singapore Utilities International, PUB has been providing water management in China, India, Indonesia, Brazil and the Middle East, he said.