Minister's speech at the IDA World Congress

Dr Yaacob Ibrahim Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Singapore

Speech by Dr Yaacob Ibrahim,
Minister for the Environment and Water Resources,
Singapore at the Opening Ceremony of the International Desalination Association World Congress 2009, Dubai
on 7 November 2009, Saturday, 1230pm

President and Members of the IDA Board
Excellencies
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentleman

I am very pleased to be here today to speak at the opening ceremony of the 2009 IDA World Congress on desalination and water reuse. The International Desalination Association, or IDA, and Singapore have enjoyed a very strong and fruitful partnership since 2001. Our relationship is built on a shared vision of developing viable water solutions for the world. This resonates with the Congress theme of 'Desalination for a better world', which aims to explore cost-effective and sustainable solutions that can help to bridge the widening gap between water demand and supply.

Desalination plays an important role in meeting Singapore’s water needs, supplementing our other sources like imported water, local reservoirs and recycled water or NEWater. In 2007, IDA and PUB, the national water agency in Singapore, jointly organised the first ever Desalination and Water Reuse Leadership Summit. This was to become the genesis of the Water Leaders Summit - a pillar event under the annual Singapore International Water Week, which now attracts delegates from all over the world, including water leaders from the Middle East.

Climate Change and Singapore’s Response
The scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, have warned that water resources, along with agriculture, eco-systems and even health, will come under pressure as the frequency of extreme events like floods and droughts increases. Singapore is undertaking detailed studies on our vulnerability to climate change by localizing the IPCC regional models to our specific circumstances.  This will enable us to identify more clearly the adaptation responses that are needed. 

Our development of desalination and water recycling has diversified our water supply and increased our resilience to extreme weather events.   We are also learning from the experiences of other countries like the Netherlands, and engaging experts to study how we can develop other good adaptation responses, such as coastal protection against sea level rise.

At the recent Water Leaders Summit, one of the discussions was on the need for a “systems approach” to water management.  This centres on the notion that water is not managed in isolation but is an integral part of a bigger system, along with energy, food, waste and health. For instance, water treatment and distribution require energy, while water is also needed in energy production. This ‘systems approach’ was illustrated by the second Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize winner - Professor Lettinga at the Singapore Water Lecture, who showed how by-products such as bio-gas could be reclaimed from wastewater treatment process to generate electricity and improve the overall efficiency of the treatment. On this note, I am pleased to share that the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize 2010 has attracted 50 good nominations from more than 20 countries and will be presented for the third time at the Singapore International Water Week 2010.

In recent years, significant efforts have been made by PUB to improve resource efficiency. To achieve its target of reducing energy consumption by 10%, in-house measures like sludge incineration were implemented, together with facility optimization and energy reclamation.  In addition, a $4m research grant was also awarded to Siemens Water Technologies to develop technology to reduce energy consumption in seawater desalination by 50%.

Blue Paper and Solutions 2009
Many of the insights offered by water leaders over the course of the Singapore International Water Week 2009 and event highlights have been captured in 2 publications – the ‘Blue Paper’ and ‘Solutions’, which I am pleased to launch today. The ‘Blue Paper’ captures the main discussions on water issues involving policy, leadership, infrastructure and technologies, while ‘Solutions’ covers the key highlights. Copies will be distributed at the PUB Singapore Booth at the IDA World Congress Exhibition.

Conclusion
Despite the nascent global economic recovery, big ticket water infrastructure investments will still be challenging in the midst of competing pressing demands on the public purse.  This underscores the need for practical water solutions which are both energy-efficient and cost-effective. In this regard, the next Singapore International Water Week in 2010 with the theme “Sustainable Cities – Clean and Affordable Water" is a timely opportunity for experts and industry leaders to exchange their views. I hope that many of you will be able to join us for SIWW 2010 to be held in June in Singapore.  You will find it especially worthwhile as it is being held in conjunction with the second World Cities Summit (WCS), which is about ‘Liveable and Sustainable Cities for the Future’. This event will bring together leading city experts to identify innovative solutions to the challenges facing cities today,

To conclude, I urge everyone to continue working together on efforts towards achieving sustainable water solutions. I am sure that the Congress will yield some insightful discussions for us to learn from.

Thank you.