SINGAPORE - To spur more companies to watch their water usage and recycle the scarce resource, national water agency PUB will raise its funding for water recycling projects to a maximum of $5 million from July 1, up from $1 million.
The enhancements to the Water Efficiency Fund were announced by Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu on Monday at the opening of the three-day Singapore International Water Week Spotlight 2023 conference. Any non-domestic premises with a monthly water consumption of at least 1,000 cubic metres will be eligible for the funding for recycling projects. The implemented project should result in at least 6,000 cubic metres of water saved a year.
In addition, funding will be raised for pilot studies of water-saving projects by companies from $50,000 to $150,000. This will benefit smaller businesses and less water-intensive sectors, added the agency. Marina Bay Sands received grant money in 2016 to set up infrastructure to collect and recycle water from 4,000 air-conditioning units across its three hotel towers. This condensate water recovery solution saves an average of 70,000 litres of water a day.
“The company was able to achieve a 30 per cent recycling rate, with up to 60 million litres of water savings a year,” said Ms Fu.