Plan to extend use of recycled water in factories
By Lew Eng Fee
THE waste-water that Singaporeans flush down their sinks and toilets each day will be channeled to greater use next year.
For the Environment Ministry is laying another 50 km of pipelines that will bring industrial or recycled water to factories and plants in the Benoi, Gul and Tuas areas.
A ministry spokesman said yesterday that the mains will be completed by next year.
The extension is in line with the ministry’s policy to encourage more factories to use industrial water, which costs only 20 per cent that of drinking water.
The cost of one cubic metre of industrial water is only 24 cents, compared to $1.10 for potable or drinking water.
The spokesman said there has been a steady increase in the use of industrial water — recycled from sewage effluent —over the past five years.
Use of recycled water in homes
She said that in 1983, an average of 370,000 cubic metres of industrial water was used each month. By this year, the figure had risen to 550,000 cubic metres a month.
About 20,000 cubic metres are recycled from 700,000 cubic metres of effluent discharged into the sea daily.
The bulk of the recycled water is used by factories in and around Jurong industrial estate.
But more than 6,500 HDB units in the western part of Singapore are also supplied with such water for flushing toilets.
Last year, the average consumption of such water by industries was 15,200 cubic metres a day while that for households was 1,100 cubic metres daily.
The need for using more recycled water to help reduce rising demand for drinking water each year was also underscored by a ministry official at the Water Asia conference at the Hyatt Regency yesterday.
In a paper presented on the final day of the three-day conference, Mr Chia Poh Soo, Manager of Jurong Industrial Water Works, said waste-water was "an important resource" which is "as yet largely untapped potential".
According to Public Utilities Board figures, water consumption in Singapore in the first seven months of this year rose by 5.6 per cent over the same period last year.
The biggest users are the commerce and industry sectors, which consumed 9.8 per cent more.
Mr Chia said the successful operation of the waste-water reclamation plant in Jurong since 1966 shows that the recycling of sewage effluent can provide a reliable and constant supply of water for industrial and non-drinking use.
The conference, organized by the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological Institute and Interfama Trade Fairs, ended yesterday.
Source : The Straits Times, December 11, 1987
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