How has Singapore turned waste water and sea water into drinking water?

As one of the most densely populated countries in the world today, Singapore has taken many miraculous measures to recreate clean water daily, according to Reuters.

The secret to turning waste water and sea water into Singapore's drinking water

From storing each drop of rain .

50 years ago, Singapore had to limit the use of clean water. The water from the rivers smells and is clogged with waste from shipyards, pig farms and toilets dumped directly into the flow.

Marina Bay, Singapore's commercial area - (Photo: Reuters)

But today, everything has become different.

The country with the highest population density in the world now has a completely new water use policy. They collected rainwater from 2/3 of the land area, recycled wastewater and even developed technology to simulate human kidneys to reduce salt in seawater.

"In about a generation, we have changed Singapore" - George Madhavan, an engineer who works for the National Water Management Company (PUB) for 30 years, is currently the company's communications director, said.

In many countries, agencies are divided according to specific tasks and only focus on their work such as flood control or just drinking water management. But in Singapore it is the opposite; PUB "manages the entire route of the country ," Madhavan said.

" Our goal is to store every drop of rain and recycle used water as much as possible" - he said.

" That means that we do not sell clean water. We rent water. We re-process the water flow after use, this is similar to laundry service , " Madhavan said.

Mr. Madhavan also added: "The water you drink today is the same as the old water. We did not create or destroy it, the water just rotated. So we are using technology to shorten it. life cycle of water " .

After declaring independence on September 9, 1965, the country with only 700 km2 lived on water from three reservoirs and mainly imported from neighboring Malaysia.

Today, Singapore collects rainwater through an 8,000-kilometer sewer network, which leads to 17 reservoirs and collects used water from a 60-meter-deep drainage tunnel system .

Singapore is recognized as a global pioneer in water treatment technology , they set up a water management unit in 1972. Unlike Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo, Singapore does not have much land adjacent to the city to dig. and lead downstream streams.

During 1977-1987, 11 government agencies joined the cleanup of Singapore River and the main commercial area was heavily polluted. The island moved 610 pig farms and 500 duck farms, gathered 5,000 street vendors into food centers and moved boats to the east.

. To seawater filtration technology that simulates human kidneys

Madhavan said the Singapore government's biggest challenge was to displace 46,000 people who encroach on land and live in poor conditions without sewers between buildings.

More than 260 tons of rubbish were removed from the lake after Singapore undertook renovation. In 1987, the water environment was regenerated, the Singapore River had fish. Worried about water pollution again, in the beginning, the government controlled people to stay away from the water.

"We even put signs with crocodiles around the lake and rivers to ward off people away," Madhavan said.

However, today, Singapore has changed, the state has opened the waterfront area like Marina Reservoir , where people can kayak, bike ride and fly kites. Singapore supplies 400 million liters of water per day to 5.4 million people.

The two natural water sources of the island are rainwater and 250 million liters of water per day from Malaysia 's Johor River . Malaysia's agreement to buy clean water will expire in 2061.

Climate change makes natural water sources unreliable, the lion island nation is focusing on projects to treat used water and desalinate seawater.

In 2003, NEWater project was introduced. This is the name of the treated clean water and purified by microfiltration, by osmosis and ultraviolet sterilization.

Meeting 30% of the country's demand, NEWater is drinking water but is mainly used for industry and storage for the dry season. Singapore oriented the NEWater project to meet 55% of the country's clean water demand by 2060.

The first desalination plant of the Lion Island was opened in 2005, with the task of filtering seawater, desalinating, creating fresh water and meeting part of the needs of the people. However, both desalination and NEWater projects have the same disadvantage of consuming a lot of energy to produce, Madhavan said.

Singapore is currently building a factory with an electrochemical desalination testing program, which uses electric fields to remove salt from seawater. According to Madhavan, PUB hopes to reduce half the amount of energy used for production.

Researchers at universities are also developing seawater filtration technology that simulates human kidneys, but this method requires several years of research, he said.