Water Resources in Singapore
Water as a Scarce Resource :
Why is water important?
- We need water for drinking and for other uses at home such as cooking and cleaning.
- Water supply is also needed for industries and in agriculture
What is Water Constraint?
- Amount of Water consumed by people is increasing (Demand increase)
- Fresh water available remains limited (Supply Limited)
- Shortage of water is known as water constraint.
Reasons for Water Constraint :
1. Limited Supply of Fresh Water :
- 1% of the total amount of water on Earth is fresh water. (Found in rivers, streams and lakes {surface water}, deep underground {ground water}
Reaseons for Limited Supply of Fresh Water
Uneven ditribution of fresh water (physical - cannot control)
- Differences in climate lead to different countries receiving different amount of rainfall
- Example : Canada has 20% of the world's fresh water supply while India only has 10% and India population is 30 times more than that of Canada's
Water Pollution (human - can control)
- Not all water is safe for drinking
- Fresh water polluted by waste from factories and households
2. Rising Demand for Water
Reasons for Water Constraint - Rising Demand for Water
- Water plays an important part in the daily operation of industries
- Example : Water is needed for cleaning and cooling machines and in making products
- More food is needed to be grown to feed growing population
- Water is needed to water crops and rear livestock
- Large scale irrigation projects need to be developed
Changes in lifestyle (MAIN REASON)
- when a country developes, people with modern lifestyle can afford to buy items that can provide them with convenience and comfort
- Electrical items such as washing machines and air-conditioners will lead to an increase in demand for water
Response (Impacts) to Rising Demand for Water
- Increasing the price of water
- Incresing the price of water will encourage people to use less water
- Thus reducing the cost of producing and distributing water
Negative impacts of increasing the price of water :
Only the rich can afford to buy water, the poor will suffer more
- Increasing Catchment Area
- Catchment area is an area over which rain falls in and is collected
- An increase in catchment area will lead to increase in amount of water collected
- Examples of catchment areas : MacRitchie Reservoir, Lower and Upper Peirce Reservoir ...
- Forests can retain a supply of fresh water by intercepting rain and absorbed by the soil as groundwater
- Water will be drained to the reservoirs for storage
- Helps keep the cost of water treatment low
- Forests are conserved in the process, people can enjoy a wider range of nature and recreational area
- Water catchment areas will lead to less land available for other uses such as building houses, industries and roads
- Country has little control over the amount of rainfall, so if rainfall is little, not much water will be collected and it would have been a waste of money
- Catchment areas become ineffective during droughts
An international argeeement on water is an arrangement between 2 or more countries regarding the supply and use of water resources over a specific period of time
- Importing water is a convenient way of obtaining water
- International agreements do not last forever
- Countries cannot be certain they will always have water to meet their needs
People use technology to create new sources of water
Two common ways technology can increase supply of water :
1) Recycling water (Water reclamation)
- Used water can be converted into usable water
- Used water is collected from households and factories and channeled to water recycling or water reclamation plants
- Treated water is used for purposes such as washing and cooling machinery
- Also possible to further treat used water into clean drinking water
- Refers to the process of removing salt from salt water
- Common in dry regoins of the world and where water supply is contaminated
- Example : Saudi Arabia
IMPORTANT!!!
Method 1(of desalination) : Distillation
- Water is boiled and water vapour is condensed into fresh water (resembles natural water cycle)
- Can be expensive as it requires a lot of energy to heat up the water
Method 2 (of desalination) : Reverse Osmosis
- Sea water is pumped at high pressure through a special membrane which seperates the dissolved salts from the water
Effectiveness of the use of technology
- Use of technology is very costly and requires large amounts of enery
- People may not get used to the idea of drinking it as the minerals in the water are removed giving it a different taster from normal water
- Water conservation refers to the careful use of water resources to ensure that wastage is kept to a minimum
- Educate the public through campaigns
- Reduce risk of future water shortage by encouraging people and industries to use less water
- Help delay the need to develop expensive new facilities to increase water supply, saving land for other uses
- Helps households save money through reduced water bills
Reservoirs in Singapore
Singapore has a total of 17 reservoirs . The more important ones (for exam) are :
- Marina Reservoir
- Bedok Reservoir
- Lower Seletar Reservoir
- Upper Seletar Reservoir
- Lower Peirce Reservoir
- Upper Peirce Reservoir
- MacRitchie Reservoir
- Pandam Reservoir
- Pulau Tekong Reservoir (not on the Singapore island, supplies water for Pulau Ubin)
The other not so important ones are :
- Sarimbun Reservoir
- Kranji Reservoir
- Jurong Lake
- Tengeh Reservoir
- Poyah Reservoir
- Murai Reservoir
- Punggol Reservoir
- Serangoon Reservoir
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reservoirs_in_Singapore
Case Study : Water Supply in Singapore
1) History of water constraint in Singapore - The 2 main reasons
a) Physical Constraint
- Rivers in Singapore do not supply enough fresh water
- Amount of rainfall collected in catchment areas is not enough due to dry spells during June to October
b) Loss of many water catchment areas
- More land was cleared to make way for housing and industries
2) Growing demand for water
- Growth of Singapore's population and industry has increases its demand for water
- Demand is expected to increase as Singapore is working towards becoming a global centre for high tech manufacturing
- Need for water to carry out our processess
- Chages in lifestyle of Singaporeans lead to an increase in the demand of water
- Example : Use of washing machines, air-conditioners and dishwashers
3) Water as a Strategic Resource
- Increase our vulunerability, putting us in a weak or unfavourable position
- If not, may lead to negative inpact on our lives and businesses
4) Methods to increase water supply
- PUB, the national water agency put in place a water supply strategy known as the 'FOUR TAPS STRATEGY' (in order of importance to Singapore's water supply
Tap 1 - Water from local catchment areas
- In 1975, 11 more reservoirs were constructed overs the years (orginally there were 3 - MacRitchie, Lower Peirce and Upper Seletar)
- Done by building dams across rivers or along coastlines
- Stormwater collection ponds were constructed in housing estates and channeled to various reservoirs
Tap 2 - Imported Water (International Agreements)
- Buy water from neighbouring countries
- Singapore has been buying water from the Malaysian state, Johor, since the 1920s
- 2 agreements signed with the Johor government will expire on 2011and 2061
- There is a need for Singapore to be self sufficient and obtain fresh water supply from locah sources
Tap 3 - NEWater
- Water reclamation is the use of advanced membrance technology to further treat used water to produce high grade water called NEWater in Singapore
- Quality of NEWater surpasses international drinking water standards
- Supplied mainly to industries for non-potable use
- Small amoutns of NEWater is mixed with rain water stored in reservoirs before it is sent for treatment at water works and supplied to households for consumption.
Tap 4 - Desalinated Water
- Singapore carries out desalination of sea water to increase water supply
- Desalination plant were first built at Tuas in 2005
- Uses reverse osmosis method to treat water
5) Policies and campaigns to conserve water supply
- PUB impose conservation tax on the amount of water used
- A household that consumes more water will need to pay higher taxes
- Save Water campaigns carried to teach Singaporeans to view water as a scarce and precious resource and to use it wisely (Conservation talks held in schools and leaflets given to households)
- Water Rationing Excercises carried out in some housing estates
- Water Efficient Homes programme lauched to set up mobile exhibitions to educate people about conserving water
- Kits consisting of water saving devices and water conservation tips are distributed to public for free
THANK YOU :)
Sarimbun
Murai
Kranji
Up. Seletar
Poyan
Lower Peirce
Tengeh
Up Peirce
Bedok
MacRitchie
Jurong Lake
Marina