NEWater: reclaimed drinking-quality water
NEWater: agua potable regenerada de aguas residuales
- Date
- 2003 · confidence high
- Place
- Bedok, Singapore
- Credited to
- PUB (Singapore's national water agency)
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
A plant that purifies wastewater with microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light to drinking-quality water, opened in 2003. It now covers about 40% of the island's water demand, mostly industrial.
Windhoek (Namibia) had been recycling wastewater for drinking since 1968; Singapore's merit is the scale and the integration into national policy.
What it led to
- Singapore's water self-sufficiency (the 'four national taps')
- indirect potable reuse in other cities (Orange County, Perth)
- reduced dependence on imports from Malaysia