Singapore— It seems as if Minister Indranee Rajah could not contain her excitement in a Facebook post about the progress the PUB’s Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS) has made.

On Tuesday morning (Apr 20), the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office wrote about her visit the previous day to the worksite of the DTSS Phase 2 together with Ms Grace Fu, the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment.

Ms Indranee wrote, “It’s rather awesome when you realise that something you are building is going to last 100 years or more.”

In her post, she referred to the DTSS as “Singapore’s superhighway for collecting used water.” 

The minister described it as “a system of huge tunnels going deep underground, and moving water purely by gravity to the water treatment plants for cleaning and recycling”.

It’s easy to understand her excitement, as water has always been one of Singapore’s most precious resources. 

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She added that one part of the DTSS, the Tuas Water Reclamation Plant, can treat as much as 800,000 cubic metres of water each day, and that’s just for starters. 

“That’s the same amount of water in 320 Olympic-sized swimming pools!

“The DTSS will boost our water sustainability, harnessing and recycling every precious drop of water.”

Looking ahead, she said that the DTSS will benefit not only Singaporeans today, but future generations as well.

Ms Indranee added that next month in Parliament, the Significant Infrastructure Government Loan Bill (SINGA) will be debated.

If this Bill is passed, the Government will be able to borrow funds that would pay for infrastructure key to the country’s long-term development. “Repayment will be shared by present and future generations as both will benefit from such infrastructure,” wrote the minister.

According to a CNA report, Phase 2 of the DTSS is nearly 25 per cent complete. As of this month, work on around 24 km of the 100 km-long water conveyance system will have been finished. 

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Construction on Phase 2 of the DTSS started in 2017 and is scheduled to be finished by 2025. 

The DTSS will eventually be able to meet 55 per cent of the country’s water needs, said Yong Wei Hin, the director of Phase 2, in 2019.

“Once DTSS Phase 2 is in place, the existing conventional water reclamation plants at Ulu Pandan and Jurong, as well as intermediate pumping stations, will be progressively phased out to free up land for higher value development,” CNA quotes PUB, the national water agency,” as saying.

/TISG

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http://theindependent.sg/indranee-rajah-or-lawrence-wong-whos-up-next-for-finance-minister/