Dear MEL Topic Readers,
How Singapore is using technology to solve
its water shortage
Singapore is a small island and densely
populated city-state with a population of 5.6 million. It is a highly developed
country and one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Singapore is also the world’s
most highly ranked state in education, healthcare, quality of life, personal
safety and housing, with a home-ownership rate of 90%. Sounds like a dream
place to live in, doesn’t it? But the city-state lacks one of the essentials of
daily life. Water. It doesn’t have natural water sources of its own. Therefore,
Singapore has built a vigorous, diversified and sustainable water supply from
four water sources known as the Four National Taps, Water from Local Catchment,
Imported Water mainly from neighboring Malaysia, high-grade reclaimed water
known as NEWater, and Desalinated Water. Because of its high-tech nature, new
technologies are being developed in Singapore to reclaim as much water as possible.
One of such examples is a black sponge called carbon fiber aerogel that cleans wastewater
on a massive scale. Another example is a lightweight, simple, portable
filtration device that provides clean drinking water.
But what is remarkable in Singapore is water management
policies, including legislation and enforcement, water pricing, public
education and research and development.
Enjoy reading the article and learn about
human ingenuities to cope with the changing environment.
No comments:
Post a Comment