Black & Veatch to Engineer Singapore NEWater Facility
Black & Veatch has started full design engineering services for the Changi NEWater Plant in Singapore. The plant will be the fifth and largest NEWater plant in Singapore with a capacity of 50 million gallons per day (mgd).
"With today's concerns about water scarcity and the need to meet future water demands in a sustainable manner, we are seeing an increased need for advanced water treatment technologies to allow used water to be recycled into the environment," said Ralph Eberts, senior managing director of the firm's water business in Asia Pacific. "This is the third and largest major water facility to deploy advanced treatment technologies that we have worked on in the region during the last twelve months."
The firm has agreed to provide full design engineering services for the plant with Sembcorp Utilities, a subsidiary of Sembcorp Industries, after Sembcorp was awarded the largest design-build-own-operate water project in Singapore in mid-January this year. The project includes an agreement that the plant will supply PUB, Singapore's national water agency, with NEWater for the next 25 years.
Eberts added, "We are delighted to work on the NEWater project with Sembcorp. Sembcorp has extensive water resources internationally, and the NEWater project presents a wonderful opportunity for us to foster a long-term relationship with Sembcorp."
Tan Cheng Guan, executive vice president of Sembcorp Industries' Group Business & Strategic Development, who also heads Sembcorp's water business, said, "Black & Veatch was selected because it has demonstrated in-depth technical and project execution expertise based on its experience in prior water projects. Further, the company has a well-established track record with PUB, which developed the NEWater technology."
The design of the Changi NEWater Plant reduces land use and minimizes construction costs by placing the main NEWater facilities on the roof of the newly constructed Changi Water Reclamation Plant. Treated used water from the Changi Water Reclamation Plant will be piped directly to the NEWater plant as feedwater, minimizing the extent of pipework for conveyance as well as maximizing the use of existing PUB assets.
The plant will be commissioned in two stages: 15 mgd in 2009 and 35 mgd in 2010.