NEWater: Singapore’s Recycled Water
Photo by Pixabay
From our well-being to agriculture, water is vital in our daily lives. However, despite the abundance of water that the earth has, water scarcity is one of the emerging problems today. Water recycling is a way to use water to the fullest. In Asia, Singapore is one of the countries that has adopted the water recycling method in their national water management.
Singapore’s NEWater
Water recycling, also called water reclamation, refers to reusing wastewater for various purposes, such as irrigation in agriculture, industrial purposes, household sanitation, and drinking. The wastewater will undergo different filtration processes depending on the purpose. Recycling water for drinking, for instance, will have a longer filtration process than irrigation.
To diversify its water supply, Singapore built Four National Taps, one of them being the high-grade reclaimed water called NEWater. It was first announced to the public in 2003 after undergoing intensive research on the feasibility of water recycling in Singapore. Right now, there are five water plants in operation.
A three-step purification process
The first step of water recycling in NEWater’s system is to collect the wastewater in a water reclamation plant for standardized treatment. Then, the treated water is sent to the NEWater plant. The NEWater technology requires a three-stage process for water purification: Microfiltration/Ultrafiltration, Reverse Osmosis (RO), and Ultraviolet Disinfection. These ensure the water is free from bacteria, viruses, and other possible contaminants.
The reclaimed water is mainly used for industrial and air-cooling purposes. At the same time, it can also be added to the raw water reservoir when needed.
As of April 2020, as many as 20,000 analyses had been conducted to test the quality of NEWater. The results indicated that NEWater is cleaner than Singapore’s tap water in terms of color, clarity, and organic substances. This reclaimed water is actually used as the primary water supply for wafer fabrication plants, which requires a super clean environment to be able to operate.
Public support and understanding
The demand for water in Singapore is projected to double by 2060. While the nation is still actively looking for more solutions to meet this demand, it needs public support of the current water management method.
Therefore, as a part of public education and stakeholder engagement, NEWater established an education hub called NEWater Visitor Centre. This hub offers an educational tour on water sustainability and the production process of NEWater, hoping to gain the public’s support and understanding of the nation’s sustainability attempts to ensure a better life for all.
Editor: Nazalea Kusuma
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Kresentia Madina
Madina is a Reporter at Green Network Asia. She graduated from Universitas Indonesia with a bachelor's degree in English Literature. She has three years of professional experience in editorial and creative content creation, editing, and research.
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