Companies have more reasons to save water with funding schemes announced by the Public Utilities Board (PUB) on Wednesday.

Under a new collaboration with SPRING Singapore, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will receive grants of up to $20,000 to offset auditing costs for a new standard of water efficiency systems for the non-domestic sector.

Non-SMEs can also expect grants of up to $10,000 under the PUB's Water Efficiency Fund. This amount may be used to support projects involving water conservation campaigns and recycling efforts.

At the Water Efficient Building certificate presentation ceremony on Wednesday, Second Minister for Environment and Water Resources and Foreign Affairs, Ms Grace Fu, said the PUB hopes to lower the daily per capita domestic water consumption to 147 litres per day by 2020.

Citing figures from a PUB announcement in March, Ms Fu added: "This is important, as water demand is expected to almost double in the next 50 years, in tandem with population and economic growth."

A total of 23 recipients comprising schools, industries and buildings received gold and silver certificates under the certification scheme at the ceremony for the first time.