Policy Recommendation

3.0 Policy Recommendation

3.1 Current Policies

1. Water Efficiency Management Plans - PUB

PUB launched a well-thought-out water demand policy to conserve water (Tortajada & Buurman, 2017). Every organization consuming water over 60000 m³/ year will be regulated and required to submit their Water Efficiency Management Plans to PUB annually. This policy stimulates the implementation of water efficiency and water storage.

2. National Fifth Tap

PUB has relentlessly driven for innovative methods and collaborated with R&D (), and they attempt to find underground reservoirs of water in teh Jurong Island which is able to solve the problem of unavailability to store rainwater (Channel News Asia, 2013). Also, this fifth tap can be completely domestic water source supply.

3. Public Education and Incentives

Water conservation constitutes part of the syllabus of primary school education. There is basic knowledge about saving water and water-related programs highly mentioned through daily education (PUB, 2021), like ABC Waters (Active, Beautiful, Clean Water Program). In addition, Singapore establishes a prestigious Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize to hornor contributors who develop innovative policies or programs (WaterWorld, 2019) and stimulate technology advancements.

S

Comprehensive and mature water supply network and system which guaranteed water quality and current quantitative. At the same time, the government is working on regulating water demand which is a parallel behavior.

The absence of groundwater and aquifer pressurizes Singapore's future water supply and its water-sufficiency.

Singapore has a solid foundation of economics and a massive number of technicians which can promote aiming development.

W

O

The relationship between Malaysia and Singapore is the most uncertain for the water supply and water selfreliance in Singapore. Also, speeding climate change is uncontrollable and difficult to predict.

T

Singapore's water-related policies are holistic and substantial. Associating with future policy recommendations, they ought to more likely refer to upgrading existing urban amenities and public facilities and motivating technological advancement.

2021

2025 Policy 1

2030 Policy 2 Policy 3 2061

3.2 Policy Recommendations

Policy #1

Urban water-related infrastructure upgrading project

stormwater harvesting with biofiltration & drop irrigation

Problem:

If the stormwater is not regulated well, the flash flooding may paralyze existing local catchments and urban water supply systems and urban constructions (PUB, 2013).

Benefits:

1. Potentially valuable source - well-managed stormwater can be an effective source to irrigate urban green space.

2. Water-quality: the membrane and process of biofiltration is the same process for producing NEWater which is drinkable, therefore, water quality is guaranteed.

Feasibility:

Singapore has a thorough system to manage stormwater runoff (Wang et al., 2016) and network of drains and canales, with the target of regulating flooding and potable water supply (Zhang et al., 2015). Hence, stormwater can be transferred to a kind of potential valuable source to irrigate.

Drop irrigation is a mature technology in current global society. Singapore is advantageous in some high-tech fields, advanced drop irrigation is not infeasible in this smart country. Also, the land use of agriculture has no great proportion.Through World Bank's statistics (2018), there is 0.931% of land utilized for agriculture, which occupies a subtle percentage of land use in Singapore. Thus, these two advantageous conditions in Singapore can facilitate the achievement of this project by 2025.

<1% >99%

2021

2025 Policy 1

2030 Policy 2 Policy 3 2061

Policy Recommendations

Policy #2

Green rooftop catchments

Problem:

1. Management: Singapore is located in tropical areas, extensive green space easily attracts diverse insects (Threlfall et al., 2017). Management is problematic, because sometimes managers cannot reach every aspect of matters. Also, rooftop leakage is a common problem (Dauda & Alibaba, 2019), this only can be solved by meticulous design and sophisticated management.

2. Expenditure: Completely renovating existing buildings is a massive project which requires a large amount of initial funds.

Benefits:

1. Enhancing public awareness - Integration with innovative technology and daily life

2. Mitigating adverse climate effects - Increasing areas of green space, consequently mitigating the speed of climate change universally (Zhang et al., 2015).

3. Heightening productivity & collection diversity - Being other forms of local catchment

4. Potential Advantages - Artificial irrigation, Maintaining soil moist, Developing water balance model (Bandara et al., 2016)

Feasibility:

Making rooftops be utilizable and aesthetic. According to Hill (2017), Singapore possesses 30% of green rooftop buildings which occupies the highest rate among Asian countries. This is a well-thought-out foundation to build green rooftop catchments with low expenditure, therefore, existing green rooftops can be renovated to rooftop catchments by 2030. Moreover, this policy should be sustainably developed for future constructions.

30% 70%

2021

2025 Policy 1

2030 Policy 2 Policy 3 2061

3.2 Policy Recommendations

Policy #3

Improvements on desalination and reused water technology with incentives

Problem:

1. Expenditure: Requiring a large amount of financial funds to sustain incentives and support research projects.

2. Collaboration: Incentives will lead to competitions which can bring progress on technology, but also unstable collaboration.

Benefits:

1. Enhancing poductivity -Desalination technology will double provision of water than current demand (Lin, 2018). Domestic provision productivity will push the schedule of water domestic dependency.

2. Dual progress - As long as Singapore achieves water self-reliance, the pressure of Johor's water supply can be reduced.

3. Water Quality - Due to contend, high-tech companies are required to heighten water quantitative and quality. Based on Singapore's standard of drinkable water now, NEWater's quality will be further promoted.

Feasibility:

By the expiration year of the Water Agreement, Singapore's government aims to achieve the target of water self-dependency and supplying water domestically. On account of prestigious and well-quality technology in Singapore, the capability of completeness is highly feasible. Furthermore, Singapore is an economically prosperous country. Thus, Singapore is completely capable of advancing in the field of desalination and recycling.