Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told water experts yesterday the main challenges to providing clean water and sanitation to Asia’s cities are not technical or even economic – they are political and social.
Speaking at the Suntec Convention Centre to more than 1,500 government officials, NGOs and water industry experts attending Singapore International Water Week, Prime Minister Lee described the planning that went into Singapore’s transformation over the past 50 years from a city with water shortages and open defecation to a pioneer in water management.
“The most important thing really may not be the water itself, but the ability of the city to administer an effective, competent honest government, within which sensible things can be done,” he said.
For Singapore, this meant combining its water supply agency, PUB, with the sewerage department, then held under the National Environment Agency. It also meant cleaning up its water ways and introducing water pricing schemes in a way that was acceptable to the public.
Prime Minister Lee said a significant step in the development of Singapore’s water system was finding that if they treated sewage properly they could reuse the water. “If you improve the sewage treatment process, then you can actually save on NEWater production,” he said, “…but to make two ministries work together and optimise the whole water cycle is not easy.”
Today the entire water cycle is managed by PUB.
Singapore’s push for more self-sufficiency in water began with the realisation that its almost complete reliance on imported water presented a national security threat. Singapore currently has two water treaties with neighbouring Malaysia. One expires this August. The other expires in 2061, by which time, the island nation plans to have the capacity to provide all its own water.
PUB has invested heavily in research and development (R&D) and partnered with multiple technology companies to create capacity for desalination, water recycling and water harvesting from local catchment areas. Singapore currently harvests water run-off from two-thirds of the island and has plans to increase that amount to 90 per cent. By 2060 NEWater, or water recycled from wastewater treatment plants, will meet half of the expected water demand and desalinated water will meet about a third.
PUB has also introduced measures to reduce demand, including incentives for industry to develop water efficiency strategies, certification for water efficient buildings and public awareness campaigns to reduce daily per capita water demand from its 2010 level of 155 litres to 147 litres by 2020.
The ability to invest in new technologies and reducing demand both depend on the government’s water pricing policies.
Prime Minister Lee noted that cities need to get the price right so people understand that water is a scarce resource and value it. “If you make it free nobody will bother to turn off the tap,” he said, adding that at the same time, good water pricing allows water producers to get a return on their investment and make the finances work.
Acknowledging that charging for water can be politically difficult, Prime Minister Lee explained the government’s gradual approach to water pricing, which began 15 years ago with a rate of only one third the targeted cost of water. He said they increased the rate over the course of a few years in combination with subsidies for low-income groups and public education campaigns. “Today we price water at what it is worth, which is what it would cost us to desalinate,” he said.
Prime Minister Lee said that other countries trying to solve their water problems should make the issue a priority. “Be prepared to move on a national basis…When you need to make major changes, for example on pricing, be prepared to do that. But at the same time, buffer the impact on the population,” he said.
He warned that the economic costs of a dysfunctional water system were very high, particularly when residents are forced to buy bottled water, which he said cost about 100 times the amount that Singaporeans pay for their tap water.
“If you can get your system working, it’s a tremendous savings for your city,” he said.
This week marks the fourth annual Singapore International Water Week, which last year attracted more than 14,000 delegates, industry leaders and decision-makers from 112 countries and regions.
