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Singapore
AsiaSoutheast Asia

Water-stressed Singapore taps into water solutions

  • The nation, with no natural water resources, has a cutting-edge system involving technology, diplomacy and community involvement to help it secure its water future
  • The government has already spent decades on a plan focusing on the so-called four ‘national taps’: water catchment, recycling, desalination and imports

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Cables run out to a floating solar panel farm in Singapore, one of the world’s most densely populated countries. Water consumption has increased by over twelve times since the nation’s independence from Malaysia in 1965. File photo: AP
Associated Press

A crack of thunder booms as dozens of screens in a locked office flash between live video of cars splashing through wet roads, drains sapping the streets dry, and reservoirs collecting the precious rainwater across the tropical island of Singapore.

A team of government employees intently monitors the water, which will be collected and purified for use by the country’s six million residents.

“We make use of real-time data to manage the storm water,” Harry Seah, deputy chief executive of operations at PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency, says with a smile while standing in front of the screens. “All of this water will go to the marina and reservoirs.”

The room is part of Singapore’s cutting-edge water management system that combines technology, diplomacy and community involvement to help one of the most water-stressed nations in the world secure its water future.

The country’s innovations have attracted the attention of other water-scarce nations seeking solutions.

A small city state island located in Southeast Asia, Singapore is one of the most densely populated countries on the planet. In recent decades the island has also transformed into a modern international business hub, with a rapidly developing economy.

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