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Background to CWP
Despite abundant rainfall (over 2 meters annually), Singapore's high population density qualifies it as a water scarce country (renewable supply of only 152m3/capita/yr). Due to population growth and increasing economic activity demand for clean water is expected to rise 3% annually. If Singapore does not carefully husband its water resources it will have to rely even more heavily on foreign sources of water (at present roughly 50% of Singapore's water supply is imported).
Water reclamation, the process of treating wastewater to a high degree and reusing the treated water, is an important means to stretch and efficiently utilize water resources. Aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) which involves the injection to, storage in, and abstraction from the ground, can play a significant role in a water reclamation program. Soil aquifers can often store large volumes of water. Additionally physical, chemical and biological processes within the aquifer can remove contaminants. Thus ASR can provide an additional barrier, another safety factor guaranteeing a safe and clean water supply.
To date ASR has not been considered in Singapore, primarily because groundwater has not been used as a water supply. However Singapore's aggressive land reclamation program has created large sand aquifers that may have significant ASR potential. Many questions must be answered before embarking on any large scale reclamation scheme that includes ASR. The research proposed herein will take a comprehensive look at the feasibility of utilizing ASR in Singapore by conducting laboratory, field and modeling efforts focusing on the Changi reclamation site.
Results of this research will give Singapore's decision makers the information and tools necessary to determine if and how ASR can be utilized to efficiently utilize Singapore's water resources.
Assessing the impacts of ASR on water quality and thus its suitability for water reclamation requires the ability to identify and quantify aqueous constituents at trace levels. Determination of bulk parameters such as total organic carbon (TOC) or chemical oxygen demand (COD) is not sufficient to insure protection of human health. Thus development of NTU's water quality analytic capabilities will be an important additional component of this research. In addition to providing the means for assessing the utility of ASR this capability will significantly enhance NTU's and Singapore's ability to address a wide range of water quality, treatment and remediation issues.