Top Honours for Singapore’s National Water Agency

Singapore’s National Water Agency PUB has been named ‘Resilient Water Agency of the Year’ at the Global Water Awards 2021, a recognition conferred by the international water community for its robust efforts in ensuring water security for Singapore, even amidst challenges posed by the global Covid-19 pandemic. 

In addition, Singapore’s newest desalination plant, the Keppel Marina East Desalination Plant (KMEDP) was conferred the ‘Desalination Plant of the Year’ Award, in recognition of its innovative capability to treat both seawater and freshwater from the surrounding reservoir. 

Established by the Global Water Intelligence (GWI) in 2006, the annual Global Water Awards recognise the most important achievements in the international water industry and rewards initiatives in the water, used water and desalination sectors, that are moving the industry forward through improved operating performance, innovative technology adoption and sustainable financial models.

The ‘Resilient Water Agency of the Year’ is a new award category to recognise government agencies or water utilities that have offered the most robust or innovative response to the unique challenges of 2020 for the water and used water sector. The three other nominees in this category were Anglian Water in the United Kingdom, Gruppo Hera in Italy, and the Orange County Water District in USA. 

The ‘Desalination Plant of the Year’ recognises the most impressive technical or ecological desalination plant commissioned in 2020. The three other nominees were the Al Dur 2 IWPP (Bahrain), Khobar I SWRO (Saudi Arabia), ZPC Seawater Desalination Project (China). These awards also mark PUB’s fourth consecutive win. In 2019, the PUB-owned Tuas Desalination Plant was conferred ‘Desalination Plant of the Year’. 

 These awards are testament to PUB’s commitment towards operational excellence, with continual investments in innovation and technology in its vison to becoming a Smart Utility of the future.

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck early last year, PUB swung into action swiftly and initiated a crisis management plan to ensure all their plants and operations continue to function as usual. 

Despite these challenges, PUB pressed on and made headway on three major projects that will strengthen resource resilience and water security for Singapore:

 The KMEDP is Singapore’s first large-scale dual- mode desalination plant capable of producing 137,000 cubic metres (or 54 Olympic- size swimming pools) of fresh drinking water per day. The plant is able to treat either seawater or freshwater from the Marina desalinated water is a weather-resilient water source and the completion of KMEDP is a major boost to Singapore’s water security.

As the pandemic grew in 2020, PUB has been focused on achieving two outcomes – keeping their staff and workers safe from the virus and keeping Singapore’s water system running smoothly

The global water awards recognise the most important achievements in the international water industry, and reward those initiatives in the water, wastewater and desalination sectors that are moving the industry