CWRP and its sewerage system is phase one of PUB's plans for waste water. -- ST PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA
'WASTE not' might just as well be the motto for Singapore's latest water reclamation plant in Changi.
To save space, the Republic's fifth Newater factory, due to be completed next year, is being built on top of the Changi Water Reclamation Plant's (CWRP) underground facilities.
Mr Young Joo Chye, deputy director of deep tunnel sewerage systems and best sourcing at national water agency PUB, said this stack concept is a unique feature: 'If we had not adapted we would have required three times the land.'
The Ulu Pandan water reclamation plant is spread over 46ha and can treat 79 million gallons per day (MGD), whereas the CWRP covers 32ha but has a capacity to treat 176MGD - or 320 Olympic-size swimming pools - of waste.
Singapore produces 300 million gallons of sewage a day. The CWRP's deep tunnel sewerage system, buried beneath Singapore expressways running from north to east, has been built to last for 100 years.
The Changi Newater factory will have a capacity of 50MGD and together with Ulu Pandan, Kranji and Bedok Newater plants will reclaim about one-third of Singapore's waste water by 2011. The Seletar Newater plant and its water reclamation facility will be axed in 2011.
CWRP and its sewerage system is phase one of PUB's plans for waste water. Two of the six water reclamation plants, Bedok and Kim Chuan, have been phased out.
In the next 10 to 20 years, another deep tunnel sewerage system and water reclamation plant will be built at Tuas and two or all of the remaining plants at Kranji, Ulu Padan and Jurong will be shut down.
Read the full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times.
