Water still not seen as a scarce, precious resource

Recent hot weather raised hardly any concerns about need to conserve water

By Warren Fernandez, The Straits Times, 1 Jul 2012

The sweltering heat was beginning to get to me. I had started out on my run later in the morning than I had planned, and as I pounded the pavement, the scorching sun was already bearing down on me.

I was running in the Punggol reservoir park, which opened in the north-eastern part of the island last July. Its opening brought the number of water catchment areas in Singapore to 17 and increased the area devoted to capturing water for Singapore's needs from half to two-thirds of the island. But for most people in the area, it was simply another beautiful place to get closer to nature.

Fewer people than usual seemed to be out and about that Saturday morning, put off perhaps by the heat.

In the peaceful quiet of the morning, the glistening water caught my eye. To my surprise, the levels looked pretty much as I remembered from my previous visits, with no sign of any fall because of the rising mercury.

When I asked some PUB officials about this last week, they assured me that it was not by chance. Much work goes into maintaining the water levels in our reservoirs, rain or shine, they insisted.

Much of this effort in water management goes unnoticed, until something goes very wrong, such as when floods hit Orchard Road.

Indeed, amid the recent heatwave, few seemed too perturbed. Like most people, my family and I went on unaffected, simply retreating indoors, turning up the air-conditioning, doing the laundry more often, or popping into the shower to beat the heat. The water, after all, would surely flow when the taps were turned.

Yet, not so long ago, as a political reporter for this paper, I recall writing many reports highlighting anxieties about the shortages that might hit Singapore when the water pacts with Malaysia expired in 2011 and 2061.

When then Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad sought to whip up sentiments on the ground with his cries of 'potong, potong, potong' (cut, cut, cut), it sent a chill down many spines here.

At the time, many Singaporeans had cried out for something to be done to boost the Republic's self-sufficiency in water and cast aside this vulnerability.

But 2011 came and went, the first water agreement expired, with hardly anyone breaking a sweat.

How did that happen? Breakthrough technologies like water recycling and desalination enabled Singapore to mitigate its water dependency. By sheer wit and will, we were able to declare that if we could not buy the water we needed, then we would find a way to make more of the stuff. Thankfully, it was no empty boast.

That was a game-changer. Today, water is less of a strategic nightmare and more of a potential business opportunity for Singapore.

This weekend, thousands of political and corporate leaders are gathering at the Marina Bay Sands convention centre for the annual Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) and World Cities Summit. Many will be interested to discover just how this tiny city-state managed to overcome its desperate shortage of water.

This interest arises not just because of what Singapore has done, but more so as many other countries and cities are going to have to grapple with a growing paucity of water in the years ahead.

According to estimates by the United Nations, one-fifth of the world's population - or about 1.2 billion people - live in places where water is physically scarce. Another 1.6 billion people face economic water scarcity, meaning their countries lack the infrastructure to extract, process or transport water to meet their needs.

The situation looks set to get even more dire in the decades ahead, as the world's population grows, and becomes more affluent and urbanised. By 2025, half of the countries in the world will face water shortages, notes the UN, with water scarcity even becoming a potential security concern.

By 2050, at least one in four people is likely to live in a country affected by chronic or recurring shortages of freshwater, the UN adds.

Furthermore, the challenge goes beyond drinking water, as water is needed to produce much of what we consume from day to day.

With the world's population expected to cross the nine billion mark by 2050, and as people become richer, demand for food will rise. Meeting this demand through modern agricultural methods will require more water, as well as energy.

This gives rise to what some have dubbed the water-energy-food nexus, a tricky triple challenge that has to be addressed as a whole.

Put simply, water is needed to extract energy and generate power; energy is needed to produce, treat and transport water, especially if the water is derived through desalination or recycling; and both water and energy are needed to grow food.

Little wonder then that some have started to say that in time, 'water will be the new CO2'. By this they mean that water scarcity will come to figure prominently on the global agenda, just as carbon dioxide and climate change did in recent years.

So far, though, water has yet to have its 'Katrina moment'. Minds have not been focused on this looming challenge. But, they will be before long, just as Hurricane Katrina and the massive damage it wrought in New Orleans in August 2005 forced the world to sit up and take notice and so put climate change on the global agenda, if only for a while.

In this regard, Singapore's experience in trying to conserve and recycle every drop as far as possible will be of interest to others. Many will want to know how Singapore overcame a worry that once provoked much existential angst among its leaders and citizens alike.

Singapore has managed to turn water adversity to advantage. But it will have to keep on doing so if the expiry of the second water pact with Malaysia in 2061 is to pass as quietly as the one that ran out in August last year.

Much remains to be done, given that water is still not viewed by many of us, whether young or old, as a strategic or precious resource, to be cherished and conserved.

These thoughts were running through my mind as I reached the Punggol dam. Tired and thirsty, I took a gulp of cool, clear water, before turning around to head back.

As I entered my estate, I came across maids going about their daily chores, watering gardens, or hosing down cars at full blast, oblivious to the precious stuff going down the drain.

Hot and bothered, I rushed straight into the shower upon reaching home. I turned the tap, and was thankful when the water flowed.

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