Tuesday 21 February 2017

The days of water rationing and water self-sufficiency


Back in those days when there was no NEWater, no desalination plants, in a severe drought, taps ran dry for months.

Yes, it happened many times. Water rationing was a common exercise.

Water is a precious and scarce resource. It does not come cheap. BILLION OF DOLLARS were spent on water research until feasible solutions were found. ...

Today, many Singaporeans take water for granted. They think the tap will never run dry. After all, dry spells have come and gone, and life goes on as usual with not a drop of water less. In fact, water usage went up instead in a dry spell as people took to the shower more often to cool themselves.

Let's be mindful of this fact: the tap will continue to run clean water as long as the desalination plants are running.

We speak of water self-sufficiency often and the desalination plants give us a sense of confidence but lest we forget, water self-sufficiency is also linked to energy self-sufficiency.

Friends, those desalination plants will produce clean water as long as there is energy to run them.

What if there is no energy? Will water still flow from the tap?

When our water agreement with Malaysia lapses, our main source of water will be from NEWater and desalination plants.

So let's begin to treat water as a finite resource, precious and scarce, and definitely not cheap.

Water conservation should be a habit and it begins at home. There is more that each one of us can do to conserve water. It starts with being conscious of how we use water.

Experts say that the decision to raise water prices after 17 years is to be applauded.

17 years is a long time. Who can dispute that cost of water production has not gone up in that 17 years?

There is strong evidence to suggest that under-priced or free water leads to very inefficient uses of water including increased wastage. (See: http://bit.ly/2m1V4hF)

Take the case of Doha, the capital of Qatar, for example. Water is free in Doha. The average daily water consumption of residents is 1200 litres!

Experts say that water should be priced accordingly to provide a sustainable financial model for the proper operation, maintenance, updating and construction of new facilities for water and wastewater treatment systems.

Concurrently, poor families should receive targeted subsidies so they have access to reliable water supply and wastewater treatment services. The subsidies could start, for example, when the water bill of a household exceeds 2 per cent of its income.

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