National water agency PUB said yesterday the treatment process at its Bedok plant is stringent and its water is safe to drink straight from the tap.
The assurance came in the wake of a decomposed body being found on Monday in the nearby reservoir.
The treatment process at the Bedok plant takes six steps and two of them involve enhanced disinfecting technology called ozonation, where ozone - a gas converted from oxygen - passes through the water to kill bacteria and micro-organisms like plankton.
The ozonated water then passes through filters to remove finer particles, and chlorine is added to sustain the disinfection, followed by lime and fluoride.
The entire process takes four hours before the water is fit to drink.
Mr Lee Mun Fong, PUB’s deputy director, water supply (plants) department, said: “We have a plant that is able to treat water with multiple barriers and, on top of that, we have a system that monitors from the source all the way to the tap. So I want to assure our customers that our water is safe to drink, even from the tap.”
At full capacity, Bedok Waterworks supplies one-tenth of Singapore’s needs - distributing water to areas like Tampines, Simei and Bedok. It is one of two plants that have been using ozonation for more than two decades - due to the environment of its catchments which require more treatment.
