Summary & Reader Response Draft 1

In Annex B of the news release “Tuas Nexus – Singapore’s First Integrated Water and Solid Waste Treatment Facility Begins Construction”, the National Environment Agency (NEA) (2020) revealed the Public Utility Board (PUB)’s aim to completely recycle Singapore’s used water, considering that the water consumption would possibly double from 430 million gallons a day by 2060. A major contribution to this aim would be the completion of the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS) and Tuas Water Reclamation Plant (TWRP), with a treating capacity of 800,000m3 a day using “two energy-efficient membrane bioreactor systems”, in 2025. Used water would be channelled underground via two different tunnels from households and industries and transported to the TWRP by the 80-metre-deep influent pumping stations. Furthermore, 83 hectares of land would be available after the gradual termination of the two previous water treatment plants and 37 intermediate pumping stations.

Although this segment of the news release thoroughly addressed the benefits of the DTSS and TWRP, it failed to highlight how they would efficiently recycle used water.

Primarily, the efficiency of the facility should have been presented with concrete evidence by the NEA. It was vaguely mentioned that the membrane bioreactor systems would save energy. However, this is inadequate to convince the nation’s taxpayers among the readers that the TWRP would truly be energy efficient. The predicted annual carbon footprint reduction was stated to be 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of removing 42,500 cars from Singapore’s roads (“Construction begins on”, 2020). Moreover, World Bank (2016) reported Singapore’s carbon emissions to be 37,535,412 tonnes. Cross-referencing these two sources, it can be deduced that the TWRP can cut down approximately 0.5% of Singapore’s total carbon dioxide emissions each year. Disclosing this crucial piece of information can help the NEA reassure the taxpayers that the government is effectively spending its funds for the greater good of the citizens.

Alternatively, the NEA might not have felt the need to particularly provide details to justify the government’s actions regarding the TWRP. Having achieved numerous excellence awards in business, people, innovation, and service locally and globally since its inception 19 years ago, the NEA is one of the leading government organisations in Singapore (NEA, 2021). To add on, the TWRP project was also recognised by the international community during the biennial International Desalination Association World Congress 2019 where it received the “Most Innovative Water-Energy Nexus Project” (“Singapore’s Tuas Nexus”, 2019). These two sources show the credibility of the NEA in carrying out quality work that not only looks out for the wellbeing of the environment, but also the people. This may have led to the recycling efficiency of the facility not being explicitly disseminated in Annex B of the news release.

With that being said, the NEA overlooked the costs of operation and maintenance for the TWRP. It was only specified that about $1 billion worth of construction contracts would be awarded by the end of 2021. This may not strongly persuade the audience that this facility is a worthwhile investment since the information available in this segment regarding the costs is heavily impartial. According to ABB (2020), the cost of fully setting up a monitoring and control system for the entire facility was $40.5 million. This may only make up a part of the actual operation and maintenance costs. Comparisons between these costs for a traditional plant and the TWRP should have been reported by the NEA. Hence, the readers can have even more confidence in the government’s decision to pursue this large-scale project.

The NEA, together with the PUB, engineered an elaborate solution to boost Singapore’s used water recycling and reinforce its water security by embarking on the TWRP project. Nevertheless, these efforts could have been much more appreciated by adopting a more transparent reporting style. The current way of conveying messages to the public should be improved.

References

ABB. (2020, November 16). PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency selects ABB to automate world’s largest membrane bioreactor. https://new.abb.com/news/detail/70644/pub-singapores-national-water-agency-selects-abb-to-automate-worlds-largest-membrane-bioreactor

Construction begins on ‘energy self-sufficient’ water and solid waste treatment facility Tuas Nexus. (2020, September 8). CNA. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/tuas-nexus-waste- treatment-energy-construction-begins-13091096

National Environment Agency. (2020, January 8). Who We Are: Achievements. https://www.nea.gov.sg/corporate-functions/who-we-are/achievements

National Environment Agency. (2020, September 8). Tuas Nexus – Singapore’s First Integrated Water and Solid Waste Treatment Facility Begins Construction. https://www.nea.gov.sg/media/news/news/index/tuas-nexus-singapore-s- first-integrated-water-and-solid-waste-treatment-facility-begins-construction

Singapore’s Tuas Nexus wins the most innovative water-energy nexus project award. (2019, October 24). Smart Water Magazine. https://smartwatermagazine.com/news/pub-singapores-national-water-agency/singapores-tuas-nexus-wins-most-innovative-water-energy

World Bank. (2016). CO2 emissions (kt) – Singapore. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.KT?locations=SG

Image by Jon Tyson