Climate change is affecting rainfall patterns - causing bouts of more intense rainfall and also periods of drier weather.
Singapore needs to prepare for such fluctuations over the long term, said Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu yesterday.
The Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS), for instance, will allow Singapore to reclaim and recycle water, she said during a visit to a project site for the second phase of construction of the system.
"If we are able to reclaim more, it makes us more resilient because our water can be reused over and over again," Ms Fu told reporters.
The $10 billion DTSS was conceived more than two decades ago to increase water resilience in Singapore, a nation with no natural water resources. It is a network of deep tunnel sewers that can convey used water through gravity to centralised water reclamation plants, where the used water is treated and purified into Newater.
Construction of the DTSS is being done in two phases.
The first, which involved more than 100km of tunnels and link sewers serving the northern and eastern parts of Singapore, was completed in 2008 and cost $3.4 billion.
Three conventional water reclamation plants in Kim Chuan, Bedok and Seletar were phased out following the completion of the first phase and the land they sat on was made available for other developments.
Used water was instead channelled to Changi Water Reclamation Plant in the east and Kranji Water Reclamation Plant in the north.
Construction for phase two, which will channel used water from the downtown and western parts of Singapore to the new Tuas Water Reclamation Plant, began in 2017.
As at this month, about 24km of the 100km-long conveyance system for phase two has been completed.
Once this phase is completed, land for the existing conventional water reclamation plants in Ulu Pandan and Jurong will be freed up, as will the plots now being used for immediate pumping stations.
The second phase is estimated to cost about $6.5 billion.
In all, the land freed up by the DTSS project is about the size of 214 football fields.
Audrey Tan
