Singapore International Water Week is making a big splash in the fast-growing water technology sector. The event was held recently at Singapore & it focused on the need for efficient and cost effective solutions, to address water problems amidst a constantly changing environment. Singapore International Water Week is the global platform that brings policymakers, industry leaders, experts and practitioners together to address challenges, showcase technologies, discover opportunities and celebrate achievements in the water world.
Global consumer products provider Procter & Gamble (P&G) announced at the recently concluded Singapore International Water Week, that it will build a multi-million-dollar plant here to manufacture its PUR Purifier of Water sachets with non-government organizations to help millions of needy people worldwide as a part of their charitable programme. The plant is expected to be able to produce more than 200 million packets a year. From past efforts, this is equivalent to averting 85 million days of diarrhea and saving more than 11,000 lives. It will launch new Children’s Safe Drinking Water Programmes in seven countries. The sachets have been used in disaster relief work, such as Haiti’s recent earthquake.
Another announcement made at the event was that, three of the world’s leading universities - The National University of Singapore (NUS), Peking University and The University of Oxford announced a five-year initiative to promote research, education and commercialization of environmental & water technologies. This initiative is first of its kind in the water technology industry and was launched by Mr. Tan Yong Soon, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, Singapore.
This initiative called the SPORE has $63 million funds from Singapore’s National Research Foundation, supported by the universities and research grants. It aims to train 40 research scientists and engineers at the three universities over five years.
The National water agency PUB put out to tender the building of Singapore's second water desalination plant. PUB said the new desalination plant will use a filtration method known as reverse osmosis to remove salt and other impurities from water. When completed by 2013, the larger plant will add 318,500 cubic metres of water a day to the nation's water supply.
The Economic Development Board (EDB) hopes more private sector companies will leverage on Singapore’s focus on water development to spur their non-profit initiatives.
According to Tan Choon Shain, Deputy Managing Director, Singapore Economic Development Board, “The business has grown & there are countries and cities around Asia that find solutions from Singapore useful, since Singapore is in the heart of Asia”.
Singapore aims to become a 'global hydro hub', drawing the biggest water companies here and pumping funds into water research. The environment and water sector is set to add $1.7 billion to economic output here and employ 11,000, mostly in skilled jobs, by 2015.
