Singapore’s national water agency, PUB, has selected HSL Constructor Pte. Ltd. to build the country’s third desalination plant.
The new facility in Tuas, in the west of Singapore, will add another 30 million gallons of water per day (mgd) to Singapore’s water supply. It will be owned and operated by PUB.
Singapore already has another 30 mgd desalination plant, SingSpring, and the 70 mgd Tuaspring Desalination Plant. It also has treatment plants that produce high-grade reclaimed water known as NEWater as part of PUB’s long-term strategy to ensure a robust and sustainable supply of water.
"Since its introduction in 2005, desalinated water has helped strengthen Singapore’s water supply resilience. In particular, together with NEWater, it has helped us weather extremities like dry spells in recent years, and this third plant will help us further expand our water supply system to meet the growing demand in a reliable and cost-efficient manner," commented Young Joo Chye, director of engineering development & procurement at PUB.
Desalinated water currently meets 25 percent of Singapore’s water demand, and the city-state aims to maintain this proportion as water demand rises in the future.
PUB has awarded a consultancy services tender for a fourth desalination plant, which will be built at Marina East on the southeastern coast of Singapore.
Meanwhile, the new plant in Tuas is expected to start operating in 2017.
