Water sustainability, a global issue. In the past two weeks, the class has been formulating our research question that would be both from a global perspective  as well as be interesting and help others gain insight as to why water sustainability is so important and how we can ensure it. This week, we finalised the research question, and proceeded to break up into groups to do case studies on how different countries employ different methods to ensure water sustainability in their country. As for my group, we focused on our home country, Singapore. Upon researching more on NEWater, Singapore's prized method for water sustainability, I found out many new things in the process. For example, that 30% of Singapore's potable water supply comes from NEWater, and how energy consuming running the NEWater plant is. Also, that more and more NEWater plants have been opening, evidently showing how successful this venture has been.  I feel that especially for Singapore, a small country, coming up with methods for self sufficiency is pertinent since we should not be relying on other countries to supply us with one of our most basic resources. This would then cause us to be put in a very vulnerable position. Thus, much emphasis should be put on research and development to improve the technology required for water purification processes in Singapore. Genevieve

Week 2 Reflections

"Local issue, global perspective."

This was one of the instructions which was assigned to us. Our class tried very hard to fulfill that requirement as we formulated and refined our topic of research. Even thought we had spent a lot of time trying to come to a consensus, I gradually realized that we faced it was rather difficult in coming with an effective model for comparison. From the most effective method for the sustainability of water in countries, to the evolution of NEWater in other countries, we lacked effective communication and depth for the initial ideas. 

My group's area of research was seawater desalination of Japan, where we identified the pros and cons of the system. Through the evaluation of seawater desalination, i realized that constant research and development is needed to improve this technology. However, the world always seems to turn their attention to other issues in various nations instead. Let's hope that mankind will continue their efforts in the conservation of the resources and the environment. 

Wing kwan 

Week 2 Reflection.

Water Sustainability - Week 2 Discussion Reflections

Following the talk we had from WWF the week before, our class came together this week to discuss about our research topic and how we were going to do our research. Many of us saw the need to re-look into our prior research topic: NEWater in Singapore and the technology behind NEWater, due to the fact that the topic was vague and would not fully explain the inherent difficulties of water sustainability that we face today.


As such, we decided to look into the various areas that we needed to address when questioning the concept of water sustainability. Particularly the ideas of whether water scarcity was evident in developing countries, what measures have been taken by these countries to ensure that their people have a constant supply of water, and how successful these methods were. Of course, we also had to constantly hold the need for a global perspective into account. Upon deciding on this, we then proceeded to formulate our new research topic: What is the most effective method of ensuring water sustainability?
Following this, we then chose three developing countries, Singapore, Japan and Canada, for our analysis and evaluation. The path of our research would be to look into a general overview how these countries ensure water sustainability. This means the analysis of an array of methods such as desalination and reverse osmosis.
Finally, we will evaluate their methods based on:
1. Cost effectiveness
2. Eco-friendliness
3. Resources

The class split into smaller groups for more efficient research to be done on the individual country. Each group was assigned to research on either one of the countries.

For Singapore, the group has learnt about how NEWater benefits Singapore and how it functions, bringing maximum efficiency as one of the new major water supplier for Singapore. It is cost-effective on a long-term basis and it is quite eco-friendly. However, more can be done to increase the public acceptance towards drinking water that’s processed.

For Japan, the group has summarised and listed the pros and cons of the seawater desalination process used there. They have come to the conclusion that this process is sustainable in the long run, and that it is space-efficient and eco-friendly.
However, the cost of it is a problem as much investment is needed for it to be built and maintained.
With that, we will come to collate and finalise the information to produce the final product before the presentation(:

Where we can progress from here:
In view of the class’ progress for the past week where we established a sound ground for our research topic with significant depth and content shown from our research, we could still continue progressing in terms of our research contents and organisation of ideas. Firstly, we could do a comparison across the various countries on how feasible and how effective the various methods the countries uses in the provision of water. This can be done through comparing statistics i.e. costs, % of water provision, eco friendliness of methods, projected no. of years of sustainability of such a method etc. Through such comparison, we can attain a rough global perspective towards this issue by observing the various trends and pertaining problems that other countries face. In addition, we could also see the learning points of countries who seem to have a relatively secure water supply, in comparison to those who have an unstable supply of water and what kinds of methods they could adopt/ implement. Such comparison would also make us critically aware of the different kinds of challenges (in this case, water sustainability) foreign governments face, and the decisions they would have to make in ensuring a better quality of life for their people.

In conclusion, week 2 had been an extremely fruitful and insightful week, besides beginning on research for our topic, we also started to delve deeper into issues of water sustainability from a global perspective. Seeing all the efforts and ideas we have for this topic, we certainly hope that the delivery of the presentation next week would be both insightful and educational to the rest!
Jamie, Juliana, Melanie

Sustainability-week 2 reflection

After today’s discussion, we finally altered and came up with our research topic which is to evaluate the different techniques use by various nations to ensure water sustainability in the country using the following factors- cost effectiveness, long term sustainability, eco-friendliness.

For example, in Canada water is commonly purified using the Nano-Filtration and Reverse Osmosis method. This technique provides filtration at the molecular level which allows hardness, iron, tannins and other contaminants to be filtered out of the water which conventional filtration cannot remove. This technology provides a very pure product without the need for more cumbersome and invasive methods such as chlorination, ion exchange and sedimentation. While in Japan, similar to Sinapore, desalination is carried out to ensure a safe, reliable and affordable supply of water for their citizens.

Through our findings, I realized that various nations actually learn and adapt from one another water management method in order to attain long-term sustainability of water resource.

Kai Ling

References

http://purifiner.com/public3/WholeHouseNanoFiltrationSystems.php

Sustainability-Week 1 reflection

The WWF talk was indeed informative and serves a constant reminder that we have to be responsible for the consequences of our actions to the environment. Although environmental issues have been constantly brought to our concern and legal actions have been put in place, I was alarmed by the fact that some are still persistent in their actions, which are detrimental to the environment due to monetary incentives etc. I was really upset by the emotional clips about the harmful effects of poaching and over-fishing and that we should all play our part in conserving our environment. In addition, I admire the passion and determination of the WWF personnel in their unwavering efforts to protect and preserve the beauty of our environment; strongly holding onto their beliefs and going against all odds.

Moving on to our research area-water security, effective management of water resources has always been and will be a challenge for all developing as well as developed nations.  As water remains a scarce resource, there is a need to ensure its long-term sustainability through efficient water resource management.  Hence, in land and resources scarce Singapore, the use of land for water catchment has been delicately balanced with the requirements for socio-economic developments so as to ensure a safe, reliable and affordable supply of water for our citizens, and through the three other national taps namely desalination, imported potable water and Newater.

Done by Kai Ling:)

References

http://www.thegovmonitor.com/world_news/asia/singapore-looks-to-ensure-water-sustainability-into-the-future-34539.html

http://www.unep.org/gc/gcss-viii/Singapore.IWRM.pdf

Research Topic, Rationale and Methodology

WATER SUSTAINABILITY

By: 12sh03

Our research topic/ question:

NEWater in Singapore and the technology behind NEWater

Rationale for our choice of research question:

NEWater is one of Singapore’s four main national taps, which was initially explored in 1998 to reduce reliance on water imported from Malaysia. The government has been placing a lot of focus on further development of NEWater in hopes of achieving Singapore’s aim of self-sustainability. Therefore, it is rationale to analyse the process in which wastewater is treated (NEWater).

Methodology behind our research work:

Information about NEWater will be provided by PUB’s (Public Utilities Board) government website: http://www.pub.gov.sg/water/newater/Pages/default.aspx

Mode of presentation of our research findings:

To be chosen at a later date. (We are unsure which mode of presentation that we will be using)

The presentation conducted by two members of WWF last Thursday has significantly widened my perspective and understanding about the environmental problems we are facing. What concerns me the most was the shortage of natural resources in the near future if people continue using them unwisely. From my knowledge, I understand that water sustainability has already been a problem in Singapore that leads to several other economic problems as well. There has been a great effort made by the government to invest on research and projects in order to conserve water for future usage (e.g. encouraging the use of water-saved taps, constructing the NEWATER plants). However, in my opinion, every one of us should play a role in conserving water. Apart from the simple ways that everybody knows such as to switch off the tap after use or to check for any leakages, there are others more creative and effective ways to conserve water as well. For examples, we should only wash full loads of clothes in a washing machine; take a 5 minute shower… Here are more suggestions of ways to conserve water.

http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/reseau/watertips_e.html

For me, making water conservation a habit is vital for to ensure water sustainability and also, stable economic growth in Singapore. Therefore, we should all make an effort to save water anytime, anywhere, hoping that one day, Singapore will not have to depend on other nations for clean water. 

Done by Do Phuong Anh - 12SH03