Summary of Tuas Nexus - Singapore's First Integrated Water and Solid Waste Treatment Facility Begins Construction ( Draft #1)

In the news release, “Tuas Nexus – Singapore’s First Integrated Water and Solid Waste Treatment Facility Begins Construction” from Public Utilities Board’s (PUB) websites (2020), PUB states that the incorporation of both Tuas Water Reclamation Plant (Tuas WRP) and Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) are beneficial to Singapore’s sustainable development such as carbon and land savings.

PUB mentions that Tuas WRP is designed to treat industrial used water using advanced technology, unlike current water treatment plants. (changes for this sentence to be made). The objective is to increase energy efficiency while utilizing less space. 

In the new release, NEA notes that the IWMF is equipped with leading solid waste treatment technologies to achieve higher food waste recycling rate. Also, the facility treats waste matters from Tuas WRP, increasing synergy between both facilities.

The by-product generated at IWMF is co-digested with the used water sludge to increase the production of biogas at Tuas WRP. In return, the heat energy generated by the combustion of the biogas at the IWMF increase electrical capacity to sustain the operations of Tuas Nexus.

In the news release, there wasn't any cost being mentioned which is not informative at all to its reader. I feel that the article covers more of the technical aspect of how Tuas Nexus "will help boost Singapore's overall recycling efforts" instead.

First of all, I have to agree that when it comes to monetary issues. It is a very sensitive topic, especially when it comes to taxpayers' money. As members of the public, we should be obliged to know where our money went. According to National Stadium must not become a white elephant (AsiaOne, 2015), a huge investment of $1.33billion was pumped into our National Stadium, The Sports Hub. It is known for hosting big-name events like South-east Asian Swimming Championships, South East Asia Games and even National Day Parade 2016. I feel that "it would be unwise and a waste if such an expensive venue were left underutilized", which brings me back to my point whether Tuas Nexus is an investment worth splurging on? In a news release, "PUB And NEA To Call Over $5Billion In Tenders For Tuas Nexus" from National Environment Agency's (NEA) websites (2018), NEA reported that "more than S$5 billion over the new five years for civil, mechanical and electrical engineering works for the Tuas Nexus". The massive budget being allocated shows much emphasis is being placed on achieving a more sustainable future.

Secondly, we also have to take into consideration how Tuas Nexus is cost-savings in the long run as well. In the news article, "Billion-dollar facilities in Tuas to treat 40 per cent of S'pore's waste by 2027" (The Straits Times, 2016). He mentioned that "the cost-savings are in the range of a couple of S$100 million, based on preliminary studies", said Mr Yong Wei Hin, director of the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System Phase 2 at PUB. 

Although PUB wasn't very informative in terms of cost in the news release, there are still some key takeaways from the article to allow the public to know the benefits of Tuas Nexus and the importance of achieving a more sustainable future. Furthermore, Tuas Nexus will be here to stay for a long time. We can be assured that Tuas Nexus will be beneficial to Singapore's sustainability. 


Reference:

Public Utilities Board. (2020, Sep 8). Tuas Nexus, Singapore's first integrated water and solid waste treatment facility begin construction. PUB.

 https://www.pub.gov.sg/news/pressreleases/TUASNEXUS_SINGAPORESFIRSTINTEGRATEDWATERANDSOLIDWASTETREATMENTFACILITYBEGINSCONSTRUCTION

AsiaOne. (2015, December 17). White Elephant.  

https://www.asiaone.com/national-stadium-must-not-become-white-elephant

National Environment Agency. (2018, July 8). PUB and NEA to call over S$5billion in tender for Tuas Nexus.

https://www.nea.gov.sg/media/news/news/index/pub-and-nea-to-call-over-s5-billion-in-tenders-for-tuas-nexus

Boh. S (2016, July 11) The Straits Times. Billion-dollar facilities in Tuas to treat 40 per cent of S’pore’s waste by 2027.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/environment/billion-dollar-facilities-in-tuas-to-treat-40-per-cent-of-spores-waste-by-2027





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 2: Submission 1: Formal letter(Descriptive Reflection)

Dear Professor Brad, I'll start by introducing myself to let you know more about me. My name is Jeremy Koh, and I'm currently an undergraduate at the Singapore Institute of Technology(SIT) in civil engineering. I am a student in group 5 from your module, effective communication. I graduated in 2018 from Nanyang Polytechnic with a diploma in mechatronics engineering. During the course of the study, we were taught engineering software like AutoCAD and Revit. I aspire to be a BIM engineer after graduating. I found out that AutoCAD and Revit are also taught in the modules of civil engineering at SIT. I hope to make use of this opportunity to learn more about these two software. Effective communication is one of the most important soft skills. I do have my strengths and weaknesses as well. My strength would be being a good listener. I will refrain from prematurely judging until the end of the conversation to give my opinion. The reason behind it is that I would not miss out on t...
Read more

Critical Reflection

Module learning: As I sat down to type this Critical Reflection, this concludes the end of our effective communication module. On the first day of the lesson while I was looking through the module content, I was actually overwhelmed by the amount of assignment and content that we had to complete over the next two and a half months. The first assignment was to write a formal letter to our professor to briefly introduce myself and the goals I have for this module. The two goals I hope to achieve by the end of the module was to improve on my presentation (public speaking) skills and to be a better listener. The reason why I couldn’t do well in my presentation was mainly because I tend to get nervous easily speaking in front of a large crowd. As a result, I often find myself stuttering and having long pauses in between that express uncertainty.   Under Professor Brad Blackstone’s guidance, we were given constructive feedback on how to further improve. His critique includes how we...
Read more

Summary of Tuas Nexus - Singapore's First Integrated Water and Solid Waste Treatment Facility Begins Construction (Draft #3)

In the news release, “Tuas Nexus – Singapore’s First Integrated Water and Solid Waste Treatment Facility Begins Construction” from the Public Utilities Board’s (PUB) websites (2020), PUB states that the incorporation of both Tuas Water Reclamation Plant (Tuas WRP) and Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) is beneficial to Singapore’s sustainable development with regards to maximising carbon savings and land savings.  PUB mentions that Tuas WRP is designed to treat used industrial water using advanced technology, unlike current water treatment plants. The objective is to increase energy efficiency while utilizing less space. In the new release, NEA notes that the IWMF is equipped with leading solid waste treatment technologies to achieve a higher food waste recycling rate. Also, the facility treats waste matters from Tuas WRP, increasing synergy between both facilities.  The by-product generated at IWMF is co-digested with the used water sludge to increase the production ...
Read more