Taking the 'yuk factor' out of recycled water for Singapore

Engineering graduate John Poon (BE (Hons) 1989) has recently returned from three years in Singapore where he headed up a study for the high profile ‘NEWater project’. NEWater is part of a government plan to achieve water independence for Singapore through advanced water reclamation.

John recounts his experiences and the path that led him to the project:

John Poon with his children
John and his children at the NEWater Visitor Centre

NEWater is the name coined by Singapore for recycled water that has a quality much better than World Health Organisation drinking water standards. Singapore has a plan to become water independent as more than 50% of its water requirements come from its neighbour Malaysia - an unimaginable situation for many civilised countries. Singapore is so confident about NEWater's quality and safety they bottle it for promotional purposes. Currently, the main use for NEWater is industrial, especially microelectronics manufacturing and air conditioning.

After graduating from Monash in 1989, I gained employment with a number of consulting engineering firms as a civil engineer designing and project managing water supply and wastewater collection/treatment projects for government clients. In 1999 I joined the global engineering company CH2M HILL in Melbourne.

After twelve months I was seconded to their regional headquarters in Singapore to start a two-year study, later called the NEWater Study. To this day, the NEWater Study is the most sophisticated and comprehensive study of its type ever attempted and completed. The goal was to determine the production reliability and chemical risk assessment of NEWater against all major water quality guidelines/standards.

Complementing the already extensive analytical testing, a health effects study was performed to assess chronic toxicology (carcinogenicity) and estrogenic potential (chemicals that interfere with the hormonal system). These studies were completed using, for the first time in parallel, live mice and fish models in life-long experiments. Of course, this type of investigation is very costly and time consuming to do. Some interesting statistics are: over 23,000 chemical and 2,800 microbiological tests were performed for some 200 water quality parameters (about double the number of parameters that are in current drinking water guidelines/standards), 700 mice were reared for 24 months and 1,600 fish kept for 18 months -- a huge amount of analytical testing and animal husbandry. As well as overseeing the daily operations of the demonstration plant and co-ordinating studies and reports, I also had to make sure that the mice and fish were happy drinking and swimming in NEWater, making this by far the most novel feasibility study I had ever done.

In the last year of my assignment I was heavily involved in the public outreach programme for NEWater. The stigma or "yuk factor" associated with water recycling/reclamation was identified early and great effort was taken to address this issue. A number of recent water reclamation studies in the USA paid less attention to this important area and consequently failed to get past the "easier" scientific and engineering study phase because of negative public reaction. One major component of Singapore's public outreach programme was the NEWater Visitor Centre, which provided the vital interface between the public and NEWater. The visitor centre gives visitors a fun and interesting way to learn about the water cycle, its scarcity, preciousness and essentiality for life, as well as to see first hand how NEWater is made. I had a lead role in making sure that the NEWater Visitor Centre was completed on time. This was a great challenge because the centre used numerous multimedia presentations, games, displays and videos. I call it the Disney theme park of water education! Over 2,000 people visit each week and bookings are made months in advance.

After more than two years of leading edge research overviewed by an international panel of experts, NEWater was given approval for potable (drinking) use in Singapore, September last year. In February this year, NEWater was launched to the public by Prime Minister Goh. Today, nearly all of the NEWater produced (some 100 million litres per day) is delivered directly to industry thereby saving precious drinking water for other uses. A token amount of NEWater is also added to existing water catchment storages for later conventional treatment and distribution to consumers. This process is called indirect potable use (IPU) and it is planned that up to 2% of the water supply will come from this method. The overall plan is to obtain 15% (around 300 million litres per day) of Singapore's total water requirements from NEWater sources by 2012.

I like to think that us 'drought-prone' Australians will be able to learn from the Singapore experience. More information can be found at: www.pub.gov.sg/newater

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