Singapore's trade representative to Taiwan visited Kinmen yesterday to help the water-strapped island county gain access to his country's expertise in water resources development, especially water reclamation.
The visit by Stanley Loh (羅家良) came seven months after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) proposed that Kinmen learn from Singapore's water reclamation model to solve the outlying island's perennial water shortages.
During the trip, Loh inspected Kinmen's sea water desalination plant and water purification and sewage treatment facilities and held discussions with Kinmen County government officials.
He also presented Kinmen County Commissioner Li Wo-shi (李沃士) with bottled reclaimed drinking water from Singapore.
Loh said Singapore has been facing a lack of water resources since it achieved independence from Malaysia in 1965. The country now relies on rainwater collection, water imports from Malaysia, sea water desalination and water reclamation as its major sources of the precious resource, he said.
Singapore built is first water reclamation plant in 2002 and will be completing the fifth such facility later this year, when recycled water will meet 30 percent of the country's total demand, he said.
Loh said the reclamation process involved purifying used water with advanced membrane technology, and the quality of the reclaimed water exceeded the criteria set by the WHO for drinking water.
Loh said everyone who has visited Singapore has also drunk the reclaimed water, called 〝NEWater.
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