Water Crisis - Singapore’s biggest threat
Due to change in climate, Malaysia has
been experiencing the frequent drought conditions, and the level at the
reservoir has dropped down to an unprecedented level. Singapore’s water supply
is at stake.
Recently, an image of Linggiu
Reservoir at 25% capacity was posted by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on his
Facebook, along with a comment requesting people to conserve water. Still the
supply is upon the mercy of the weather.
Singapore already coined the idea of
recycling water in the early 1970s. However, the first experiment got failed due
to high costs and technology issues the pilot treatment plant was closed down
only after a year.
The fact which is undeniable is that
Singapore is a small country without natural resources. The increasing issue of
water could become the critical agenda between the politics as well as
relations between Singapore and its neighbor country Malaysia.
The expensive desalination process
wouldn’t give any relief no matter how much the country invest in technology in
order to reduce dependency on energy. As such, the conservation of water is
critical, reducing consumption is the only alternative to ensure sufficiency for
the good of the relations with neighbor countries and for people too, the
second step is to jump for the recycling of waste water by setting up the Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTP’s), Sewage Treatment Plants (STP’s) and Effluent Treatment Plants (ETP’s) in the large quantities so that there would
be a little dependency over the natural sources of water as Singapore does not
have sufficient land to rely on rainfall as a water source.