Last Thursday we visited the NEWater Vsitor Centre in Singapore. We went there by van. It took about forty five minutes to get there. When we arrived at the NEWater Visitor Centre, we were met by a young male guide who brought us through the centre and factory. This is one of the four NEWater factories in Singapore and another one is being built in Changi.
Every day this factory produces 92 thousand m3/ day or 20mgd of NEWater. The water can be drunk because it is very clean. It is produced in three stages:
-microfiltation which uses small microfilms to clean the water
-reverse osmosis which uses more small microfilms and finally,
- the water goes through ultra violet disinfection. The water can now be drunk. The technology is the best in the world for producing clean water.
We also heard about the factory's history. Then Prime Minister Mr Goh Chok Tong first decided to use this technology and so the first NEWater factory was built. At the opening ceremony of the factory, Mr Goh drank the water and soon many people in Singapore followed his example because they realised that NEWater is actually very clean and pure.
Singapore has few rivers and some small lakes. As a result, water has to be imported from Malaysia. In order to prevent Singapore from being overly dependent on imported water from Malaysia, the Government of Singapore is planning another NEWater plant. NEWater is now used as an additional source of drinking water.
We learnt a great deal about the technology used to produce NEWater from the visitor centre.
Every day this factory produces 92 thousand m3/ day or 20mgd of NEWater. The water can be drunk because it is very clean. It is produced in three stages:
-microfiltation which uses small microfilms to clean the water
-reverse osmosis which uses more small microfilms and finally,
- the water goes through ultra violet disinfection. The water can now be drunk. The technology is the best in the world for producing clean water.
We also heard about the factory's history. Then Prime Minister Mr Goh Chok Tong first decided to use this technology and so the first NEWater factory was built. At the opening ceremony of the factory, Mr Goh drank the water and soon many people in Singapore followed his example because they realised that NEWater is actually very clean and pure.
Singapore has few rivers and some small lakes. As a result, water has to be imported from Malaysia. In order to prevent Singapore from being overly dependent on imported water from Malaysia, the Government of Singapore is planning another NEWater plant. NEWater is now used as an additional source of drinking water.
We learnt a great deal about the technology used to produce NEWater from the visitor centre.
Dear Mr Truong,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing with us your visit to the NEWater Visitor Centre.
I wonder if you also drank the NEWater that the Centre gives to all visitors? I did, when I visited the Centre last year with my students. Before the visit, I was sceptical about drinking NEWater but after the visit, I was completely convinced that NEWater would not make me ill. I finished the whole bottle
at the Centre :-)
As a Singaporean, I am proud that our government is far-sighted and has come up with a solution to one of our biggest problems - the lack of water in Singapore.