SINGAPORE, 14 September 2005 — Singapore yesterday joined the family of countries which use desalinated water with the official opening of its first desalination plant in the western part of the city state. The plant is Singapore’s first and was built at a cost of $200 million Singapore dollars ($118.96 million). It will be able to provide the city-state with some 30 million gallons or 136,380 cubic meters of water a day.
Dignitaries from around the world attended the launch, which took place a day after the opening ceremony of the International Desalination Association (IDA) World Congress on Desalination and Water Reuse. Saudi Water and Electricity Minister Abdullah Al-Hussayen and the Kingdom’s Ambassador to Singapore Dr. Amin Kurdi, were among the guests. Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, was the guest of honor.
Singapore suffers from a scarcity of water. Because it lacks energy resources, it was unable to build the thermal desalination plants used in Saudi Arabia. As a result of this, Singapore had to, as Lee said, “Use every drop of water more than once.” Singapore’s water solutions have been based on what Minister Al-Hussayen called in an interview with the Singapore media, the management of “unaccounted water.”
But as Lee and Olivia Lum, CEO and group president of Hyflux, the company responsible for the building and operation of the plant, noted, it was logical to look to desalination. Another such example is Trinidad and Tobago, where in spite of an abundance of water, the government realized that desalination would provide the fastest means for industrial water.
As Lum said in her opening address, “It was more of a matter of time - time for technology to provide us with a solution to produce desalinated water at an affordable cost.” Unlike traditional thermal plants, Singapore’s plant operates on the principle of reverse osmosis through various membranes.
To celebrate the opening of the new desalination plant, Lee, Lum and members of Singapore’s Parliament were invited to toast the event with bottles of desalinated water. The atmosphere amongst the guests was one of general excitement. The guests enjoyed the festivities, which not only included good food, a jazz band and a display of fireworks. Lee and his guests went on a specially arranged tour of the new plant.
More importantly, the guests had the chance to discuss the many exciting developments in the global water industry. Both government officials and private sector operators, were able to share ideas in an informal setting.
In his speech, Lee noted that Singapore’s Water Authority; The PUB had plans to outsource $1.5 billion Singapore dollars ($938 million) to the private sector over the next two years. This was a figure that was not lost on many of the guests.
