Singapore becoming wellspring of water expertise

Locally gained knowledge being used to develop overseas projects.

DEEP in the recesses of a nondescript building on Singapore's Havelock Road, engineers William Yong and Alastair McNeil are hard at work designing two state-of-the-art water treatment plants. Nothing remarkable about that - except that the plants will be built not here, or even in Asia, but in the American states of Texas and Illinois.

SOPHISTICATED APPROACH : "With so many projects in Singapore that have made use of sophisticated technology, we are clearly in a position to export our expertise." MR WILLIAM YONG, local director of engineering firm Black & Veatch, with the design for the Panther Creek plant in Texas, which will be built in the US under direction from the office in Singapore. -- Photo by MUGILAN RAJASEGERAN


For years, while Singapore built its vast network of water pipelines and treatment plants, it imported expertise. Now expertise developed here is being applied to overseas projects. Buoyed by easy access to capital, a rapidly growing regional market and a Government eager to try out new technologies, Singapore is fast becoming a centre for excellence in the water industry.

Mr Yong is the local director of United States engineering firm Black & Veatch. The firm has already implemented numerous water projects in Singapore, and he says he is not surprised his company landed the US municipal contracts. 'With so many projects in Singapore that have made use of sophisticated technology, we are clearly in a position to export our expertise,' said Mr Yong.

One of the US projects, for instance, involves treating water using membranes, considered a superior technology to conventional filtration methods. 'While membrane technology is only becoming popular elsewhere now, Singapore has been using it for years,' said Mr Yong.

Black & Veatch is by no means the only firm exporting its locally acquired expertise. CH2M Hill, another American engineering firm, was chosen to help design Singapore's Deep Tunnel Sewerage System. Now it has sent project engineers from Singapore to help build a similar system in Seattle and Minnesota. The company is also aiming to capture more tunnelling and water treatment projects in Australia, Hong Kong and the US, said its director Tan Ngo Chiaw.

Local company Hyflux is another major player. Its subsidiary SingSpring just completed a desalination plant at Tuas, the largest of its kind in the world, making drinkable water out of sea water. The plant, which will be officially opened tomorrow, was designed by Black & Veatch.

Hyflux is now building other water treatment plants in China and Dubai.

Indeed, the mood in Singapore's water industry can perhaps best be described as buoyant. Membership of the Singapore Water Association has gone from 36 to 81 since its inception last December. The association provides a platform for industry players to network and share ideas and technologies.

The timing of this boom is perfect, coinciding as it does with looming threats of a global water crisis, rampant desertification and water pollution. The United Nations says 1.1 billion people - or about one in every six people worldwide - already have insufficient drinking water. And the number is likely to deteriorate to one in four by 2050.

Small wonder then that the Economic Development Board is trying to develop the industry into a key revenue spinner by helping local players spread their wings overseas and enticing foreign companies to relocate.

Siemens Water Technologies has already been convinced. It is in the process of transferring much of its technological and manufacturing expertise from the United States and Germany to Singapore. 'Asia is after all the fastest growing market in water technologies,' said the company's vice-president Jagannath Rao. 'So rather than conduct business here through our offices half a world away, we thought it made better sense to set up shop here.'

Radha Basu
radhab@sph.com.sg
The Straits Times Interactive, 12 September 2005