Raft of water-saving events in the pipeline

SINGAPORE — Ahead of a water price hike later this year, a stream of activities is in the pipeline to drive home the water conservation message, including a water-rationing exercise for over 14,000 students, a campaign to encourage the drinking of tap water, and community activities to encourage Singaporeans to walk the talk in treasuring the resource. 

The month-long lineup of events is being held in conjunction with the Singapore World Water Day (SWWD), which will be launched by Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean on Saturday (March 4). 

This year’s water-rationing exercises will see 45 schools — 34 pre-schools, one junior college and ten primary and secondary schools — coming onboard, in hopes that water conservation habits will take among the young. Only five schools took part last year.

In some schools, students would not have access to water supply from taps or water coolers between one to four hours for a day. They are required to bring bottled water for drinking, washing their hands, and brushing their teeth.

From this month, food establishments can put up a “Drink Tap Water” label to inform consumers that they will be serving tap water. This is to highlight that the country’s tap water is of good drinking quality, and that the public should treasure this limited resource.

A “Community Meter” initiative will also be launched to measure contributions to the water cause. For sharing water conservation tips on social media or participating in SWWD events, “drops of water” will be accumulated in the Community Meter, and tracked live on the SWWD website. Participants can earn rewards such as free entry to ActiveSG’s 23 swimming pools island-wide. 

PUB also announced that from next month, a four-tick rating for washing machines will be introduced under the Water Efficiency Labelling Scheme, a grading system for the water efficiency level of a product. 

Last month, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat announced a 30 per cent hike in water prices when he delivered the Budget statement, the first price adjustment in 17 years. Recently, record low water levels in the Linggiu Reservoir in Johor, which allows Singapore to draw water more reliably from the Johor River, have also raised the spectre of a disruption in water supply. 

The first water-rationing exercise was conducted on Wednesday at Woodgrove Secondary School in Woodlands, where Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli observed students carrying pails of water from a collection point to the canteen to wash their hands.

In a Facebook post, Mr Masagos noted that the last nationwide water-rationing exercise was held in 1964 due to a drought, and said that such exercises are important especially for the younger generation who have never experienced water-rationing, and “to remind ourselves that we should not take water for granted”.

At NurtureStars – one of the participating pre-schools – water supply at its six branches would be turned off for a day between 9am to 1pm. They would be taught how to efficiently use the two bottles of 1.5 litres of water they are required to bring to school.

“In pre-schools, students wash their hands quite often because hygiene is very important. But at the same time, we don’t want them to take water for granted. We want them to understand that it’s a precious resource,” the pre-school’s general manager Ng Kuan Wei said.

Woodgrove Secondary School student Teo Zhan Yue, 15, said having watched documentaries on how less developed countries struggled to obtain clean water made him realise the importance of having clean water and the need to conserve it. And he also tried to educate his younger sisters to adopt water conservation habits such as turning off the taps while brushing their teeth and taking shorter showers.

“I would previously complain to my mother about their poor habits but decided to take the approach where I myself nag and irritate them to until they get the message,” chuckled Zhan Yue, a Secondary Three student. 

Meanwhile, Mr Chris Hooi, executive director of Dragon Phoenix restaurant, said that he would support the campaign to drink tap water, but he would continue to serve only bottled water at his restaurant. “My customers generally prefer bottled water and they’ll either order still or sparkling water. Plus, we’re able to charge for this,” he said.