Singapore’s city centre reservoir - Marina Reservoir - is now ready for use.
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew activated the Marina Reservoir fountain, one of the tallest in Singapore, to mark the event on Saturday evening.
The freshwater reservoir has been through a desalting process which started April last year, and is now set to supply about 10 per cent of Singapore’s water needs.
PUB said desalting brings a reservoir’s concentration of salt water down from around 35,000mg per litre - which is typical of seawater - to about 100mg per litre - considered suitable enough to be of drinking water standard.
A reservoir in the heart of the city was MM Lee’s vision 20 years ago.
He dreamt of putting a dam across the Marina Channel to create a freshwater reservoir.
With advancements in membrane technology that allows treatment of water from highly urbanised areas, and the clean-up of the Kallang and Singapore rivers, this dream has become a reality.
The Marina Reservoir - Singapore’s 15th reservoir - together with the Punggol and Serangoon Reservoirs to be ready next year, will increase Singapore’s water catchment area from half to two-thirds of the island.
“What is interesting about this project is that it is taking rainwater from a very large part of Singapore. In fact it will be about 1/6 of Singapore’s land area (10,000 hectares), and probably the most urbanised part of Singapore,” said Yap Kheng Guan, senior director of PUB.
Water will first flow from drains in Orchard, Ang Mo Kio, Paya Lebar and Alexandra into the Marina Reservoir.
It can then be pumped 14 kilometres through a pipe to Upper Peirce Reservoir within half an hour for storage before treatment.
After treatment at Chestnut Avenue Waterworks, the water is then distributed to the rest of the island.
PUB said what this means is that we need to take care of our waterways.
“The drains you see right in front of your office or your house may well be bringing water to this place here (Marina Reservoir). So it’s really important for us to understand that, because every litter or thing that we throw into the drain may find its way here,” said Yap.
The PUB hopes to turn 90 per cent of Singapore into catchment areas in the future by tapping into smaller rivers and streams around the island, using variable salinity plant technology which is an integration of desalination and NEWater treatment processes.
