SINGAPORE - To meet future water demand in the city area and strengthen the country's drought resilience, national water agency PUB will build a fourth desalination plant in Marina East.

The agency said on Thursday that it will call a tender for the provision of professional engineering services for the desalination plant, which has a planned capacity of 30 million imperial gallons, or more than 136,000 cubic metres, per day.

Located near water demand zones in the city and eastern Singapore, it will also have the capability to treat freshwater from Marina Reservoir.

PUB's deputy chief executive of policy and development, Chua Soon Guan, said: "PUB has been making investments to build up and diversify our water supply sources in order to strengthen our water security. During the dry weather in recent years, we were able to ensure supply by increasing the production of NEWater and desalinated water.

"Building up weather-resilient water sources will help us be better prepared for possible prolonged periods of dry spells in the future."

The tender will include a call for the engineering design to develop the plant under a Design-Build-Own-Operate arrangement.