SINGAPORE : Singapore will airfreight 3,000 litres of potable water to the Maldives on Friday morning, as part of Singapore's tsunami relief package for the island.
The PUB will also be shipping its portable desalination plant over to help turn contaminated underground water to drinking water.
Some 10 PUB staff were kept busy packing water into extra strong plastic bags, each capable of containing 10 1-litre bottles of water.
Tony Soh, Deputy Director, Water Supply, PUB, said, "PUB has an emergency water supply plan, so as part of the plan, we already have got these water bags ready so that we can move out any time when an emergency like this arises."
These bags have been specially designed.
The snout only needs to be cut, before the clean water can be used for drinking or cooking.
PUB has done tests on these plastic bags, and they are good for use for at least three months.
While PUB could have provided more water, it was limited by available cargo space onboard passenger flight SQ452 to the Maldives.
And so, it is sending over a portable desalination plant.
Costing some S$600,000, the portable plant was built a year ago by Keppel Engineering for PUB to conduct a nine-month study on the desalination process.
PUB says the plant can produce up to 240,000 litres of drinking water for about one third of the population on the Maldives islands daily.
Harry Seah, Director, Technology Office, PUB, said, "We heard that in Maldives, the ground water, which is their only source of water, has been contaminated with sea water.
"So the plant that we have here has reverse osmosis, so this reverse osmosis will remove the salts from the water that's contaminated by the sea, so that we can convert it into drinking water."
Keppel Engineering will be sending about 10 staff to install the plant.
The company expects to produce drinking water within two weeks upon arrival.
Wong Khai Theen, General Manager, Keppel Engineering, said, "We intend to dispatch our men this weekend to the Maldives, to hook up the whole system, test and commission the plant, operate and maintain it until the Maldives authorities are able to take over the operation and maintenance of the plant."
Keppel Engineering is looking at building another water purification plant capable of producing 600,000 litres of drinking water a day, over the next three weeks, to be sent to Indonesia if there is a need.
The PUB is also looking at providing two more desalination plants to the Maldives. - CNA
