Water Strategy -- Key to Healthy Citizens
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Many have expressed fear about New Water when it was first introduced. It is unimagnable for us to drink our recycled sewage.
Do we have a choice?
If PAP govt is projecting to have a population of 7 million to 8 million people, even drinking New Water would not be enough. Our water consumption will be more than doubled if we really have 7 million people. I do not know whether there are effective way of getting ride of salt content from the sea water but if reverse osmossis is claimed to be able to remove 98% of dissolved salt, why couldn't it be used to treat sea water instead of sewage? That really bugs me.
If PAP govt is serious about having a population of 7 million to 8 million people, then it will need to seriously consider to save on fresh water usage. Allowing fresh water to flush toilets cannot go on anymore. Cities like HK is using treated seawater to flush toilets. If we could separate the system of portable and non-portable water usage channels, we could possible save alot of freshwater wasted in flushing toilets and then try to reclaim them back through reverse osmossis This is truly silly. If you could save the fresh water usage in the first place, why not? Of course, this will mean a big spending on reconfiguring the current infrastructure setup; but it is worthwhile for the future of our generation...just like the building of MRT.
There is an alarming trend of rising rate of cancer. This has to do with our water supply other than many other factors. High chlorine or fluoride content is no good for human consumption. I do not know whether it is possible to "de-chlorinate" the water before it travels from the water tank to our households. We are drinking "hard" water at the moment. This is unhealthy for long term consumption. I would prefer the treated water to be Magnetized before it reaches our household. This may cost a little more but it may prove to be effective to save our people from high medical cost.
Rain water collection could be enhanced and collected through different channels from HDB heartland and builtup area. These water may not be comparable to fresh water supply but at least, it is better than sewage water! And using rain water collected via built up area to go through the reverse osmossis may prove to be more effective.
But our longkang and canels system are built in such a way that it leads those rain water to rivers and ultimately, the sea! This will need a whole revamp.
Thus, there are bascially a few points I have raised:
1) save freshwater wastage by reconfiguring the water piping system to allow the use of seawater for flushing. This will increase our fresh water supply for portable use.
2) If reverse osmossis could get rid of dissolved salt, why not use it on sea water instead of waste water?
3) Rain water collection via built up area, especially HDB heartland, must be channeled to New Water plant, instead of wasting it to the sea. It is a better source of water recycling than sewage water.
4) Treated water preferrably must go through a simple process of de-chlorination before it reaches our household.
5) If possible, allow the water to be magnetized before it reach our household.
Point 4 and 5 is to raise the quality of our portable water, thus, helping us to keep our citizens healthier, avoiding high medical costs.
Last but not least, keep a good relationship with our neighbours, for goodness sake!
Goh Meng Seng -
ello, i think the gahmen maybe on the right track
they are using reverse osmosis (correct me if i am wrong) to filter our NewWater
and this technology was born out of NASA wanting to recycle astronauts urine and other waste water in space ,rather than sending tonnes of water, and hence using more fuel to send the water up -
sheesh... i think the state of California has been drinking the stuff for ages...
and if you look properly, some of the bottled water is actually the stuff.. they'll put there "treated by reverse osmosis"...
proven technology... nothing to worry about...
now.. if they introduce NewFood, i'm outta here
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i aint eating recycled food...
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How about key to happy citizens? Prozac.
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there are ppl eating it. Its call organic farming.Originally posted by laurence82:i aint eating recycled food... 
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erm, in NeWater, they remove the bad stuff n give the rest back to you to drink, u get the majority of the original
in organic farming, the good stuff (minerals, etc) is used by the plants for growing and then u eat it, u dun exactly get back alot of the original substance...
using seawater extensively to flush and clean? will it corrode the pipes? if not i think its idea worth considering... -
then you will have to change all the pipes to brass or copper or anyother corrosion resistant pipes. That would really cost a bomb, and more people will kpkb about hdb upgradings again. A good suggestion though not really a feasible one.Originally posted by laser51088:erm, in NeWater, they remove the bad stuff n give the rest back to you to drink, u get the majority of the original
in organic farming, the good stuff (minerals, etc) is used by the plants for growing and then u eat it, u dun exactly get back alot of the original substance...
using seawater extensively to flush and clean? will it corrode the pipes? if not i think its idea worth considering... -
next time just flush once a day save water.
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got better idea, organise a group before you go toliet, so that everyone can use together and won't have to flush multiple times, one time is enoughOriginally posted by paperchicken:next time just flush once a day save water. -
Not really. Nowadays got PVC pipes. If places like HK has been doing this for decades, I don't see why not. BTW, the flush water is technically "FREE"; they don't charge you according to the usage, but a fixed fee.
Goh Meng SengOriginally posted by CenturionMBT:then you will have to change all the pipes to brass or copper or anyother corrosion resistant pipes. That would really cost a bomb, and more people will kpkb about hdb upgradings again. A good suggestion though not really a feasible one. -
prozac causes obesity.Originally posted by ditzy:How about key to happy citizens? Prozac. -
Dear Mr Goh,Originally posted by goh meng seng:If places like HK has been doing this for decades, I don't see why not.
If I'm not mistaken, this has already been tried out by HDB in Bedok before. I vaguely recall (in the early 80's) some talk about problems with sewerage pipes because of non-portable water use.
But I can't say with any certainty because I was young and not particularly interested then.
Could have just been urban legend ... anyone else can confirm? -
More dams planned to catch water from HDB towns
By Alexis Hooi
THE Public Utilities Board (PUB) is now looking to tap into run-off water from more urban areas - by damming up Sungei Punggol and Sungei Serangoon in the north-east in five years' time.
Almost like a secret fishing village, hidden in the mangrove of Sungei Serangoon. This river is the kampung getaway for residents in Sengkang and Punggol. Studies are being done on how it may be dammed up to form a reservoir in five years' time, the PUB said in its annual report released recently.
Studies are being done on how the reservoirs, which will be downstream of the Lower Seletar Reservoir, can be created, the PUB said in its annual report for this year released recently.
The two reservoirs will capture water from HDB towns and other built-up areas.
But it is not clear whether the PUB will treat the water with the Newater technology that will be used in the Marina Bay reservoir.
Tenders will close next week for building the Marina Barrage, a dam across the Marina Channel which will create a mini-reservoir in the downtown area in three years' time.
The PUB had said that it would have to use the Newater purification method because the normal treatment method for natural reservoir water is not good enough.
Water run off from urban areas contains chemicals and leaked sewage not found in natural reservoirs.
Meanwhile, the consultant for PUB on the Marina Barrage, Dr Brendan Harley, assured yesterday that the membrane technology will be able to clean the run-off from the urban areas.
A consultant to Singapore on flood and stormwater management for the past 20 years, who is here for a conference on water management, Dr Harley said the barrage will almost certainly eliminate the threat of flooding in the city especially during the November-to-March north-east monsoon.
In March, high tides that coincided with heavy rainfall caused damage to businesses and households in the east.
Other low-lying areas like Chinatown, Geylang, Tanjong Katong, Joo Chiat, Rochor and Hougang are also especially susceptible to the waters.
Said Dr Harley, 58: 'With the Marina Barrage, I think the probability of any more floods in the downtown area is very, very small... almost zero.'
He added that Singapore has been uniquely successful in developing its waterways for both flood control as well as diverting them into a water resource.
'There're very few places that actually deliberately set off capturing good quality urban run-off.'
However, Dr Harley did caution that one problem Singapore would need to address is the soil erosion that could result in silt building up in the reservoirs - most often seen in the murky, turbid brown colours that canals seem to be filled with - a lot of which comes from construction sites.
'The barrage catchment is a much older urban area, there are leaky sewers, a lot of small businesses which throw a lot of waste into the drains,' he said.
'We have to educate the people to stop doing that.'
CLEANING UP THE CITY'S WATERWAYS
SUNDAYS can be a big stink for about 60 volunteers of an environmental group, Waterways Watch Society.
It is not unusual for them to fish out even dead dogs and turtles from the Singapore, Kallang and Geylang rivers when they take turns, in two boats, to clean up the city's waterways.
What's commonplace are styrofoam lunch boxes, beer cans and fallen tree branches.
Their two-hour weekly effort produced a pile of about 4,000 pieces of litter in just one year, said its chairman Eugene Heng.
The former bank executive said the society was set up six years ago because its members - from scuba-divers and fishermen to IT and financial consultants - were all worried about the trash building up in their beloved waters.
Said Mr Heng, 55: 'All of us have a passion to keep the waters clean. If you think about the rubbish that we pick up and all of that going back to the reservoirs... we're going to be drinking all of that in that sense.'
Mr Heng believes it is his society's mission to spread the word around and educate others: 'Keeping our waters pristine, that has to be a partnership between the people and the authorities.'
To find out more about the society, visit www.wws.org.sg -
Dear Barracuda,
I am happy to see that PUB has started off something like that. But as far as I know, the two rivers are technically not "fresh water" rivers but it is in fact mixed with seawater at hide tide. If New Water treatment could get rid of the salt content, then why not use the treatment on seawater instead?
But I think the two rivers only covers part of the canal system (longkang system) in Singapore. This is a cost effective way of dealing with the problem since changing the canal system is too cumbersome, just dam it at its end... the river. But if we are to effectively collect all rain water collection from most urban areas, then rivers like Kallang River, Pungol river must be dammed too.
These water collected is definitely going to be better than New Water from sewage treatment.
Anyway, thanks for the info. Could you put up the relevant link to this article? Thanks.
Goh Meng Seng -
Article taken from Straits Times.Originally posted by goh meng seng:Dear Barracuda,
I am happy to see that PUB has started off something like that. But as far as I know, the two rivers are technically not "fresh water" rivers but it is in fact mixed with seawater at hide tide. If New Water treatment could get rid of the salt content, then why not use the treatment on seawater instead?
But I think the two rivers only covers part of the canal system (longkang system) in Singapore. This is a cost effective way of dealing with the problem since changing the canal system is too cumbersome, just dam it at its end... the river. But if we are to effectively collect all rain water collection from most urban areas, then rivers like Kallang River, Pungol river must be dammed too.
These water collected is definitely going to be better than New Water from sewage treatment.
Anyway, thanks for the info. Could you put up the relevant link to this article? Thanks.
Goh Meng Seng
The water collected will be fresh water similar to karaji reservoir which used to be a river as well. The proposed dam at Marina bay collected water from the kallang and Singapore river. -
It is always best to drink fresh water instead of recycled water. I was hoping tat talk with malaysia will allow them to give us water for more years to come... Heard tat some of the side effects of drinking long term recycled water is cancer, forgetfulness and baldness. There may be other long term side effects as well.
Sad to say... recycled water is still better than no water... -
it is not the case of us not keeping good relationship with out neighbours, it is a case where we have our balls in their hands. You can either leave it here and keep smiling and begging them not to squeeze or have our balls back to our body.Originally posted by goh meng seng:.......Last but not least, keep a good relationship with our neighbours, for goodness sake!
Goh Meng Seng
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Interesting enough, ST runs a story on PUB planning to dam more rivers to capture rain water collected from HDB and built up area today.
It seems that there is some active monitoring of ST reporters in this forum.
Well, Mr. Alexis Hooi, what nickname are you using?
Goh Meng Seng
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,4386,276319,00.html?
More dams planned to catch water from HDB towns
By Alexis Hooi
THE Public Utilities Board (PUB) is now looking to tap into run-off water from more urban areas - by damming up Sungei Punggol and Sungei Serangoon in the north-east in five years' time.
Almost like a secret fishing village, hidden in the mangrove of Sungei Serangoon. This river is the kampung getaway for residents in Sengkang and Punggol. Studies are being done on how it may be dammed up to form a reservoir in five years' time, the PUB said in its annual report released recently.
Studies are being done on how the reservoirs, which will be downstream of the Lower Seletar Reservoir, can be created, the PUB said in its annual report for this year released recently.
The two reservoirs will capture water from HDB towns and other built-up areas.
But it is not clear whether the PUB will treat the water with the Newater technology that will be used in the Marina Bay reservoir.
Tenders will close next week for building the Marina Barrage, a dam across the Marina Channel which will create a mini-reservoir in the downtown area in three years' time.
The PUB had said that it would have to use the Newater purification method because the normal treatment method for natural reservoir water is not good enough.
CLEANING UP THE CITY'S WATERWAYS
SUNDAYS can be a big stink for about 60 volunteers of an environmental group, Waterways Watch Society.
It is not unusual for them to fish out even dead dogs and turtles from the Singapore, Kallang and Geylang rivers when they take turns, in two boats, to clean up the city's waterways.
What's commonplace are styrofoam lunch boxes, beer cans and fallen tree branches.
Their two-hour weekly effort produced a pile of about 4,000 pieces of litter in just one year, said its chairman Eugene Heng.
The former bank executive said the society was set up six years ago because its members - from scuba-divers and fishermen to IT and financial consultants - were all worried about the trash building up in their beloved waters.
Said Mr Heng, 55: 'All of us have a passion to keep the waters clean. If you think about the rubbish that we pick up and all of that going back to the reservoirs... we're going to be drinking all of that in that sense.'
Mr Heng believes it is his society's mission to spread the word around and educate others: 'Keeping our waters pristine, that has to be a partnership between the people and the authorities.'
To find out more about the society, visit www.wws.org.sg
Water run off from urban areas contains chemicals and leaked sewage not found in natural reservoirs.
Meanwhile, the consultant for PUB on the Marina Barrage, Dr Brendan Harley, assured yesterday that the membrane technology will be able to clean the run-off from the urban areas.
A consultant to Singapore on flood and stormwater management for the past 20 years, who is here for a conference on water management, Dr Harley said the barrage will almost certainly eliminate the threat of flooding in the city especially during the November-to-March north-east monsoon.
In March, high tides that coincided with heavy rainfall caused damage to businesses and households in the east.
Other low-lying areas like Chinatown, Geylang, Tanjong Katong, Joo Chiat, Rochor and Hougang are also especially susceptible to the waters.
Said Dr Harley, 58: 'With the Marina Barrage, I think the probability of any more floods in the downtown area is very, very small... almost zero.'
He added that Singapore has been uniquely successful in developing its waterways for both flood control as well as diverting them into a water resource.
'There're very few places that actually deliberately set off capturing good quality urban run-off.'
However, Dr Harley did caution that one problem Singapore would need to address is the soil erosion that could result in silt building up in the reservoirs - most often seen in the murky, turbid brown colours that canals seem to be filled with - a lot of which comes from construction sites.
Related links
Click to view enlarged graphic in PDF format.
'The barrage catchment is a much older urban area, there are leaky sewers, a lot of small businesses which throw a lot of waste into the drains,' he said.
'We have to educate the people to stop doing that.' -
The news was already available yesterday.Originally posted by goh meng seng:Interesting enough, ST runs a story on PUB planning to dam more rivers to capture rain water collected from HDB and built up area today.
It seems that there is some active monitoring of ST reporters in this forum.
Well, Mr. Alexis Hooi, what nickname are you using?
Goh Meng Seng
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,4386,276319,00.html? -
Call it coincidence?
Goh Meng SengOriginally posted by The Barracuda:The news was already available yesterday. -
Plans and studies to build the dam at Marina and Punggol were out long ago. There were concerns raised by naturalists regarding the creation of a reservoir at punggol river, which would destroy the mangrove forest in the area.Originally posted by goh meng seng:Call it coincidence?
Goh Meng Seng -
No doubt about that. I was referring to the timing of the ST reports.
As I have said, if they are prepared and already have plans to do it, I am very happy about it.
My main theme here is public health in relation to water strategy, not merely the problem of water supply.
Goh Meng SengOriginally posted by The Barracuda:Plans and studies to build the dam at Marina and Punggol were out long ago. There were concerns raised by naturalists regarding the creation of a reservoir at punggol river, which would destroy the mangrove forest in the area. -
No doubt about that. I was referring to the timing of the ST reports.
hehehe...damn funny....i think ppl overestimate themselves or inflate their self importance if they think posts here are emperor's mandate and will be obeyed.
As I have said, if they are prepared and already have plans to do it, I am very happy about it.
My main theme here is public health in relation to water strategy, not merely the problem of water supply.
Goh Meng Seng
such studies take many many years to finish, plus it is annual report which means it would have been prepared long ago.
besides singapore is vulnerable where water supplies are concerned, and news about water (newater, treaties with malaysia, save water campaigns, technological imporvements about new water sources, price of water going up/down, hyflux new gadget to make water out of moisture in air) very frequent in newspaper here.
so i wouldnt even say timing of article coincidental...it is just another one of those articles that has nationl importance rite.
as for public health...people in california drinking recycled water for decades with no health problems. people in middle east also doing that. and scientifically newater is even cleaner than ordinary tap water. the REALLLL problem is psychological....since we all know where it comes from. even i admit i will hesitate about drinking it.
but really geography we learn...all water is recycled even in nature....evaporation from sea/rivers, form clouds, rain, go into reservoir, processed, drink.....
unless terrorist go and poison water supplies as american authorities suspect will happen to them...water supply now has posed no health problms, and adding recycled water to fresh water in reservir like future plans(newater) also no health risks leh -
Some claim that California has been drinking recycled water for decades. But according to this article below, it seems not to be the case. Recycled water is used for farming and non-portable usage.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/waterreuse020827.html
Quenching one's thirst with what was once flushed down the toilet may seem repulsive, but it's an idea that is beginning to catch on here on Earth.
One of the biggest issues global leaders are tackling this week at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg is water shortages. A United Nations report recently estimated 31 countries hosting 8 percent of the world's population face chronic water shortages. By the year 2025, that's expected to climb to 48 countries with 35 percent of the population.
One way to ensure everyone has enough water in the future is to 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle' when it comes to water and human waste.
"I think reuse will be one of an array of solutions needed to take on water shortages worldwide," says Payal Sampat, a research associate in water issues at the Worldwatch Institute.
Sampat points out that a less controversial way to recycle wastewater is to treat it and then use it to irrigate farms, rather than for drinking. This is done in many parts of the world already, including California, Florida, Arizona, Virginia and extensively in the arid state of Israel.
But engineers for NASA and for at least one municipality in the United States aim to go further.
California Battling 'Yuck' Factor
"If you go on the street and ask anyone if they'd like to drink their own wastewater, they're going to say 'no,'" says Ron Wildermuth, a spokesman for the water district of Orange County, California, where a major water reuse plan is being considered. "But we explain to people, the quality of water ends up higher than what they already drink."
Wildermuth has spent the past five years selling the notion of recycling wastewater for drinking to Orange County residents. The municipality is collaborating with the county's sanitation district to build a $600 million sewage-purification system. When and if the project is completed in 20 years or so, it will be the largest of its kind in the world.
And the technology Orange County would use to recycle their water is very similar to systems in use or in design for long-term space travel.
"On the space shuttle, every pound counts and water is heavy," says Karen Pickering, a researcher at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "So we're working on systems to recycle water from hand washing, showers, urine and humidity."
By "humidity," Pickering means sweat and the breath people exhale. Currently, a Russian-designed system on board the International Space Station recycles about 50 percent of its water from moisture that collected in dehumidifiers from the breath and sweat of astronauts and lab animals.
Pickering and others are designing a system to launch in 2005 or 2006 that will recycle up to 99 percent of water on the station, including urine.
Purifying Bacteria
This is how the NASA system might work. Urine, sweat and other liquid waste is collected from commodes and dehumidifiers and pumped through a water processor containing special bacteria. The bacteria consume many of the contaminants in the water, producing carbon dioxide and solid matter as side products. The filtered water is then pressed through sheets of plastic membranes that separate the dirty water from the clean water in a process known as reverse osmosis.
The same process is now commonly used in Israel to desalinate seawater. If done right, the result is water that's so pure, it's absolutely tasteless. But Pickering cautions, the process now requires a lot of supervision.
"We go through a lot of steps and checks to make sure the water's safe," she says. "In a community where you don't have that kind of checking, it's more difficult to be as careful."
Proponents of the Orange County project say their reuse program is safe — in fact some of the county's treated wastewater already ends up in water reservoirs after it has been used as a buffer again ocean water.
But earlier this year, some were concerned when a tiny amount of a suspected carcinogen ended up in treated water. The chemical was traced to a plastics plant upstream and the water was eventually deemed harmless. But the incident raised the concern among some who think treatment is not yet thorough enough.
Cheaper Alternative?
Wildermuth argues that the new treatment system will be much more thorough than any system in existence. And, he points out the broader sewer treatment program could provide enough water to satisfy the thirst of 600,000 new residents projected for the area over the next two decades at a cheaper cost than importing water from the Colorado River.
But similar proposals have been killed by opposition. San Diego residents rejected plans to recycle wastewater three years ago and a water reuse project in Castro Valley, California was abandoned after environmentalists argued the extra water would encourage a burst in population in the area.
As it's now envisioned, the Orange County system would use reverse osmosis, like the NASA systems, as one of the final steps. But instead of using bacteria as a first step in treatment, the California system would force water through a microfilter that would cull out any suspended particles.
"The cost of purifying water is about half, maybe a third of the cost of desalinating ocean water," says Wildermuth. "We're confident when our project is up and operating, it will be replicated in every arid coastal region in the world."
That may sound like a grand endeavor, but at least Orange County's engineers won't have to deal with one sticky issue that NASA's engineers face: microgravity.
As Pickering says, "Figuring out how to separate gas and liquid without the luxury of gravity is the hardest part." Like water, "It's something we can take for granted."