Singapore presses ahead with desalination program

Singapore presses ahead with desalination program

Agence France-Presse Singapore

Singapore announced Friday that it will push ahead with a program to develop desalination as an alternative source of water while pursuing long-term supply deals with Malaysia and Indonesia.

The Public Utilities Board (PUB) said it had pre-qualified 11 bidders for the supply of 136,000 cubic meters (30 million gallons) of desalinated water per day under a build-own-operate scheme.

"This is part of our planned diversification of water sources," a PUB press statement said.

Bidders for the project are free to choose from a range of available processes under the tender, which will close in April 2002.

Desalination is a treatment process that removes dissolved salts from seawater. Two main processes are used for desalination -- distillation and membrane methods.

The contract is expected to be awarded in the second half of 2002, and the PUB will enter into a 20-year water purchase agreement starting from 2005.

"The water purchase agreement will set out the tariff structure, terms and conditions for the purchase of desalinated water," the statement said.

Singapore is still negotiating the terms of a new long-term water supply agreement with Malaysia, one of the key issues in the two neighbors' often volatile relations.

It has also entered into agreements with Indonesia to develop water resources in Riau province near Singapore.

Officials say Singapore must diversify its water sources and employ conservation over the long term to ensure stable and secure supplies. Reservoirs have been built to trap abundant rainfall, but it remains dependent on outside sources.

The city-state of four million people obtains half of its daily water from Malaysia's Johor state. Its two water agreements with Malaysia expire in 2011 and 2061.

Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew in September brokered a deal in which Malaysia will supply 350 million gallons of water after 2061 but with prices drastically increased.

Singapore also has to give Malaysia 12 parcels of land in what was seen as a "bonus" for the water deal.