NEWater - would you drink sewage?20 August 2013
In Singapore, the Government likes handing out its own bottled water - NEWater. It's probably the only bottled water in the world guaranteed to contain sewage.
Albeit cleaned-up sewage. And this may be the future. Because cities round the world see hi-tech Singapore as a pioneer - as the testing ground for green technology that will keep the taps flowing in a world of droughts, climate change and rising city populations.
We have two sources of renewable water: rain and the stuff we excrete. In future we'll have to make maximum use of both. Nowhere does this better than Singapore, an urbanised island of five million people.
"We are saving every drop of water that we can; we are closing the hydrological loop," says Yap Kheng Guan, Senior Director of Singapore's Public Utilities Board, which supplies the city's water.
Singapore is a world leader among cities trying to optimise their water management, agrees Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, a green-minded water analyst based in California.
It's engineered its cityscape so well that two-thirds of its land surface funnels rain into urban reservoirs that feed its water supply system.
Water down the drain
When I visited the city, the rains were beating down as a storm came in from Sumatra. But not a drop was wasted. They even collected the rain - falling on runways at Changi airport - to supply the terminals.
Fred Pearce, environment writer and author
Many cities spend billions rushing floodwaters off streets and into oceans. Before spending billions more to transport water from distant hills to keep the taps flowing.
Singapore thinks floodwater should find its way to taps instead of the ocean. Its urban drains now supply a third of the city's water.
Of course, run-off from city streets isn't clean enough to drink without treatment. But to keep clean-up costs down, Singapore is sanitising the catchment too. Squatter colonies and livestock farms have been banished, industrial discharges purged of toxins, and the public told to take their trash home. This being Singapore, they mostly do as they are told.
Sourced from the toilet - NEWater
Unlike most cities, Singapore has separated its rainwater from drains carrying sewage. That helps in recycling drainage water.
But it has no intention of letting its sewage go to waste. For Yap, "closing the loop" means connecting toilet to tap.
Sewage is a resource for us, not something to be disposed of.
Yap Kheng Guan, Senior Director of Singapore's Public Utilities Board
Singapore has built five treatment plants - cleaning its sewage to such a high standard that it can be recycled back into the water supply. Sophisticated membranes remove solids, and ultraviolet light disinfects what remains. They call the resulting fluid NEWater.
Besides filling an estimated 20 million water bottles so far, it now meets 30% of Singapore's water needs.
Yap says it's cleaner than regular tap water. Singapore's tap water is about 2% treated sewage.
The yuck factor
Cities are going to have to start recycling their sewage. Some already use it for crops. But as cities require ever more water - and with nature running out - our taps will need sewage soon.
The main hold-up is public acceptance. The yuck factor.
Bursting a leak
Singapore has also cut leaks from its water mains to what is probably a world record low. In Britain, we typically lose a quarter of our water this way.
It helps that Singapore has few clapped out old Victorian water mains. But the clever bit is the way it has installed sensors and valves - controlling water pressure and automatically "listening" for leaks, which are often plugged within hours of being detected.
Singapore still takes water from neighbouring Malaysia. But Malaysia is raising the price, and the authorities in Singapore worry about what might happen if the pipes were cut. Or if the city fell out with their big brother next door.
The plan in Singapore is water independence. And in working to achieve that, it's showing the rest of the world what a smart 21st century urban water supply should look like.
By Fred Pearce, an environment writer and author of "When the Rivers Run Dry".
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