Singapore goes high-tech to promote `NEWater'

Singapore goes high-tech to promote `NEWater'

Martin Abbugao, Agence France-Presse, Singapore

Resource-starved Singapore is waging a high-tech publicity drive to convince its own people that water recycled from sewers and sinks is perfectly safe to drink.

In a city where branding is evident in almost every aspect of life and slogans accompany all public campaigns, officials have called the product "NEWater", adding a new term to Singapore's unique lexicon.

Since last month hundreds of Singaporeans and foreign residents have been trooping daily to a state-of-the-art plant in the city's outskirts that purifies sewage water through a series of sophisticated processes.

Visitors, including corporate employees and students, go through a guided tour of the sprawling complex featuring touch- screen plasma televisions explaining each step of the technology.

A glass window exposes a labyrinth of pipes and valves where the actual purification takes place. Interactive games featuring questions on environmental conservation entertain the guests.

NEWater is the result of a three-stage purification process, using some of the world's highest quality membranes, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light disinfection.

"It tastes just the same (as) ordinary water," a company employee told AFP after a recent tour of the sprawling complex, taking a swig from a transparent plastic bottle of NEWater given for free.

"It has become a fact of life for us now," he shrugged.

A fact of life it is, as Singaporeans face the prospect of having their water supply from Malaysia cut off if two agreements expiring in 2011 and 2061 are not renewed.

Singapore, a small but affluent island-republic, gets half of its water supplies from neighboring Malaysia, but an acrimonious dispute over the price of the commodity as well as other issues has soured bilateral ties.

Aside from domestic reservoirs and desalinated water, Singapore is banking on recycled sewage as an alternative source of water for drinking and industrial use if supply from Malaysia is discontinued.

Singaporeans have to endure jokes on having to drink recycled water from their septic tanks, but officials have taken these in stride.

"NEWater is more than a clean and safe product," Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said recently.

"It is a strategic concept. It adds to our water supply by turning every drop of water we get ... into more than one drop of clear water. It helps us to be self-sufficient in water," he said.

NEWater will primarily be used for non-drinking purposes in the early stages. Because of its "ultra-pure" characteristics, it is in demand in industries such as wafer fabrication plants which power Singapore's robust manufacturing sector, officials said.

In their drive to promote NEWater as safe to drink, the authorities cite precedents in the U.S. and a series of tests by a panel of international experts showing it is well within standards specified by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

But mindful that the people might have reservations about drinking water recycled from their own toilets, showers and washing machines, the government is not introducing NEWater directly into residential and office taps.

Last month, it started pumping two million gallons per day of NEWater into reservoirs to blend it with raw water before being piped into taps.

The ratio will increase to 10 million gallons per day by 2011, or about 2.5 percent of daily consumption.

"The main reason is the psychological barrier associated with the idea of consuming reclaimed water," the PUB said on its website, explaining why NEWater is not piped directly into taps.

"It will take time for people to get used to the use of reclaimed water. By mixing NEWater with reservoir water, we will be able to help them overcome this psychological barrier," it said.

Goh however cited an independent survey on October 2002 showing that 82 percent of Singaporeans were prepared to drink NEWater directly.

During the National Day celebrations last August, the government distributed 60,000 bottles of NEWater for free to toast the republic's 37th year as an independent state.

The bottles, which come with bright orange labels, are also distributed at public functions, and top government officials have been photographed savoring its contents.