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The water resources of Singapore are especially precious given the small amount of land and territory in Singapore's geography while having a large urban population in the city-state.

Without natural freshwater rivers and lakes, the primary domestic source of water in Singapore is rainfall, collected in reservoirs or water catchment areas. Rainfall supplies approximately 50% of Singapore's water; the remainder is mainly imported from Malaysia. Presently, more catchment areas, facilities to recycle water (producing NEWater) or desalination plants are being built. This "four tap" strategy aims to reduce reliance on foreign supply and to diversify its water sources.



Supply provided by water catchment areas

Singapore first reservoir is MacRitchie reservoir which was built by the British in 1867. Subsequently, as Singapore developed into a modern city over the years, more sources of water were needed to sustain the city’s growth. Thus two local reservoirs were added to the rapidly modernising colonial city.

After independence, the Public Utilities Board took over the control of basic supplies including water. From then on, there are many developments and improvement to increase the water supply for Singapore.

The 1960s and 1970s saw great development for Singapore. In order to maintain that, many big water projects were embarked to increase the water supply. Examples of these projects included the Kranji-Pandan Scheme, the Upper Pierce Project and the Western Catchment Water Scheme.

Modern Singapore sources her water from a network of reservoirs and water catchment areas. By 2001, there are 19 raw water reservoirs, 9 treatment works and 14 storage or service reservoirs locally to serve domestic needs.

There is also a proposal to construct a dam to build a Marina Bay reservoir at the estuary of three Singapore rivers, creating a huge freshwater reservoir by 2009. When developed, this will increase the rainfall catchment to two-thirds of the country's surface area. [1]
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Imported water supply

For decades, Singapore has relied on import from Malaysia to supply half of the water consumption in Singapore. However the two water agreements that supply Singapore this water are due to expire by 2011 and 2061 respectively and the two countries are engaged in a dispute on the price of water. Without a current resolution, the government of Singapore decided to increase self-sufficiency in its water supply.

2006-07-29 23:54:50 · answer #1 · answered by Jigyasu Prani 6 · 0 0

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