Singapore is a small and flat country with
a population of about five million. Because the country has difficulty securing
water resources, it traditionally satisfied about 50% of its domestic water
demand with raw water from Malaysia. When Malaysia raised the price of raw
water in 2000, Singapore decided to increase the self-sufficiency rate of water
and worked out various measures. To be specific, Singapore diversified the
sources of raw water into four kinds: (1) water reservoir, (2) import from
Malaysia, (3) reuse of sewage, and (4) seawater desalination. Ultimately, the
country wishes to decrease the share of (2) and increase the self-sufficiency
rate to 100%. Currently, it has five sewage treatment facilities, and they have
a combined capacity to meet about 30% of the domestic water demand.
At the same time, Singapore promotes the
policy to integrate world’s state-of-the-art water technology under the concept
of the Global Hydrohub. Besides providing advanced research facilities and the
place for substantiative experiments, the country is trying hard to establish
networks of companies worldwide by developing human resources and organizing
international conferences. Companies worldwide involved in the water business
get together in Singapore and help Singapore companies acquire latest
technology and know-how of the water business. PUB, Singapore’s national water
agency, manages all water-related policies.
Korea shows the same trend. It started the “SEAHERO”
project that aims to develop seawater desalination technology in 2006. With the
background of the government support, Hyflux of Singapore and Doosan
of Korea are now among top 10 of the world’s largest manufacturers of seawater
desalination plants. (To be continued)
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