PUB’s Variable Salinity Plant named global winner in the Applied Research category of the International Water Association Project Innovation Awards 2010 while the Marina Barrage clinched Honour award in the design category. PUB’s PURE magazine also emerged as the winner in the ‘Best Popular presentation of Water Science’ category at the IWA Marketing and Communications Awards 2010.
The variable salinity plant, a new technology that allows PUB to harness water from marginal and fringe catchments near Singapore’s shoreline has emerged the global winner in the Applied Research category of the 2010 International Water Association (IWA) Projection Innovation Awards. In the Design category, the Marina Barrage, a 3-in-1 engineering feat that integrates the water supply, flood control and lifestyle attraction functions into one facility clinched the Honour award.
Established in 2006, the IWA Project Innovation Awards aims to recognise excellence and innovation in water engineering projects throughout the world. Held once every two years, the Awards supports IWA’s goal to “connect water professionals worldwide to lead the development of effective and sustainable approaches to water management”.
Projects submitted for the awards are judged based on the following criteria – originality and innovative application of technology; future value to engineering profession; social, economic and sustainable design considerations; complexity of the situation addressed; and degree of meeting client’s needs and expectations
With no natural aquifers and lakes as well as little land to collect rainwater, Singapore’s strategy has been to create estuarine reservoirs by damming major rivers. Together with the newly completed Punggol and Serangoon Reservoirs, the Marina Reservoir, created with the completion of Marina Barrage, are probably the last of these estuarine reservoirs.
With all the major rivers already dammed to create reservoirs, the next step for Singapore to collect every drop of rain is to tap the minor catchments. Pioneered by PUB, the Variable Salinity Plant serves to harness water from the remaining streams and rivulets near the shoreline. Due to their small sizes, it is not feasible to create conventional reservoirs out of these streams and rivulets.
“The Variable Salinity Plant and Marina Barrage play a complementary role in PUB’s strategy to maximise the amount of rain that can be harvested on Singapore’s limited land area. With the completion of the Marina, Punggol and Serangoon Reservoirs, two-thirds of Singapore’s land would be turned into a water catchment by 2011. By further tapping the small rivers and streams near the shoreline as sources of water, the Variable Salinity plant has the potential to increase the water catchment from 67% to 90%. The Variable Salinity Plant and Marina Barrage are shining examples of PUB’s innovative solutions to meet the country’s challenge in ensuring water sustainability,” said Mr Chua Soon Guan, PUB’s Assistant Chief Executive of Policy.
Conceptualised and managed by PUB, the Marina Barrage spans the southern end of the Marina Channel, which opens out into the sea. More than just an ordinary dam, the Barrage is a unique engineering masterpiece that fulfills three purposes for Singapore. It boosts Singapore’s water supply by creating Singapore’s 15th reservoir and its first reservoir in the city centre. The barrage also acts as a tidal barrier to alleviate flooding in the low-lying parts of the city such as Chinatown and Little India. With water activities and river cruises made possible by a consistent water level all year round, the reservoir has become one of the city’s latest lifestyle attraction.
This is the first international award for the variable salinity plant and the third for Marina Barrage. The Variable Salinity Plant and Marina Barrage had earlier won the 2010 IWA Asia Pacific Regional Project Innovation Awards in the Applied Research and Design categories respectively.
PUB was presented with the awards at the 2010 Project Innovation Awards ceremony and Dinner held on 22 September at The Montreal Science Center in Montreal, Canada, during the IWA World Water Congress.
In a separate ceremony to commemorate the best in marketing and communications in the water industry, PUB’s PURE magazine, a free lifestyle magazine that revolves around water also emerged as the winner in the ‘Best Popular presentation of Water Science’ category of the IWA Marketing and Communications Awards 2010.
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About Variable Salinity Plant
The Variable Salinity Plant at Tampines Canal is a 1.5MGD demonstration plant pioneered by PUB to harness water from estuarine catchments. It treats the surface runoff that is stored in the canal behind an inflatable rubber weir when available and switches to treating seawater when the canal is dry, thus allowing high plant utilisation. By carefully designing the process control to operate over a wide range of pressure from that of freshwater (7 bar) to that of seawater (50 bar), the same set of membranes can switch between treating water of widely different salinities. With this new technology, PUB aims to increase the total catchment area in Singapore to about 90%. The plant has consistently produced high-quality water that meets WHO guidelines and USEPA standards for drinking water.
About Marina Barrage
Marina Barrage was officially opened on 31 Oct 2008 by Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. A milestone project in the nation’s integrated water management, Marina Barrage has created the Marina Reservoir, Singapore’s 15th reservoir and first reservoir in the city. Together with the new Punggol and Serangoon Reservoirs, Marina Reservoir will increase Singapore water catchment areas from half to two-thirds of the nation’s land areas. In addition to boosting Singapore’s water supply by 10%, the barrage has helped to alleviate flooding in the low-lying city areas and become a hot spot for recreational activities.
About PUB
PUB is a statutory board under the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources. It is the national water agency, managing Singapore’s water supply, water catchment and used water in an integrated way. PUB won the 2007 Stockholm Industry Water Award and was named Water Agency of the Year at the Global Water Awards 2006.
About PUB’s tagline: Water for All: Conserve, Value, Enjoy
PUB has ensured a diversified and sustainable supply of water for Singapore with the Four National Taps (local catchment water, imported water, NEWater, desalinated water).
To provide water for all, PUB calls on all Singaporeans to play our part to conserve water, keep our water catchments and waterways clean and build a relationship with water so we can enjoy our water resources. We can then have enough water for all uses – for industry, for living, for life.
23 Sep 2010
