PUB launches new initiative to beautify Singapore's waterways

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A PUB that will never run dry PUB Chief Executive Khoo Teng Chye spoke to Straits Times senior writer Ong Soh Chin on World Water Day and shared his thoughts on Singapores water story. We reproduce the story in full below. Today is World Water Day. PUB’s chief executive, Mr Khoo Teng Chye, talks about how it is ensuring that Singapore will always have enough water, not only for itself, but possibly for the region. MR KHOO Teng Chye is an engineer by training. He is also the chief executive of the Public Utilities Board (PUB), a very left-brain, engineer-based organisation. But his creative right brain is also getting a workout in his new position, which he took on in December 2003. The right brain is better than the left brain when it comes to conveying ideas,’ he says, laughing. And for that, he can thank his family. ’I come from a family of right-brain people. I’m the only engineer. My wife is an English teacher and my two daughters are in the arts,’ he says. One studied political science and is currently pursuing a post-graduate degree in art history. The other is studying anthropology. All this serves him well as the revamped PUB’s main man. Where previously the PUB took care of electricity, gas and water supplies, since 2001 the first two departments have been hived off to Singapore Power. The PUB now takes care of water alone, but with new responsibilities for sewerage and drainage matters, previously under the Environment Ministry. This means that the PUB is now Singapore’s sole water authority, tasked with making water management - an area of supreme importance in resource-scarce Singapore - a more integrated and efficient exercise. Says Mr Khoo, 53: ’We are now managing the entire water loop - from harnessing the rain that falls, to channelling it and purifying it.’ He had previously served as chief executive officer of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, where he was largely credited for making Singapore’s urban planning more open and transparent. He was also group president of PSA Corp and oversaw the former statutory board’s transformation into a business-oriented group with a global outlook. His previous experiences are serving him well in his new job, he says. The URA is a very creative organisation, filled with architects and planners. They dream, they have vision. PSA is very business-oriented. We had to deal with international customers all the time and, as a result, it bred a very strong customer-focused mentality. It taught me financial discipline as well.’’ The PUB is very much an ’engineering culture. So what I am trying to do is to have a bit of URA and PSA in PUB’, he says with a smile. He’s the first to admit that there is still some way to go in publicising the PUB’s mission: to make sure there is enough good-quality water available at the lowest possible cost. ’PUB has been doing this for the last 30 or 40 years. But we have not been so good perhaps at branding ourselves and articulating clearly what we are doing,’ he admits. He wants to change all that by mobilising his right brain and coming up with ideas and schemes which will get Singaporeans to use water responsibly. But the left brain also needs to be active, to tackle the challenges of science and commerce. The PUB has created a commercial arm called Singapore Utilities International Pte Ltd (SUI), which provides water technology services. In 2004, SUI took on seven international projects, most notably in the burgeoning economies of China and India. Currently, SUI has only about 50 employees, a small number compared with the 3,000 working in the PUB proper. ’But we are probably going to grow it,’ says Mr Khoo. ’With our higher international profile, SUI is finding itself very busy. So we have to put in more resources and position ourselves more globally in future.’ The effort is part of a government drive to make Singapore a hub for water technology. Already, there are some 30 companies involved in producing Newater in Singapore, from design companies to system integrators and equipment suppliers. ’All the big water companies are here. It’s already a vibrant industry,’ says Mr Khoo. The human touch UNLESS you are an engineer, all this business of water management can sound hopelessly technical and opaque. Says Mr Khoo: ’The problem is trying to make a very complex matter very simple so that people - not only the public, but your own staff - can understand.’ In Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, he has found a like-minded ally in the push to engage and educate people in conserving, valuing and enjoying Singapore’s water resources, as mapped out in the PUB’s corporate tagline. Singapore has 32 rivers and 14 reservoirs. When the Marina and Punggol-Serangoon reservoirs are ready by around 2009, there will be 16 reservoirs in total. By that time, two-thirds of Singapore will be a water catchment area, compared to half currently. ’Almost everybody lives in a water catchment area, so people need to understand their responsibility in keeping the waters clean,’ says Mr Khoo. And part of that understanding comes from interacting with the water. With that in mind, in 2004, reservoirs were opened up so that people could use them for water activities. While some people initially had reservations about allowing water catchment areas to be sullied by human activity, Mr Khoo thought otherwise. He says: ’Before the Berlin Wall came down, I visited West Berlin and saw a reservoir there which hosted a lot of activities. So I thought, if 12
the Germans, who are so environmentally conscious and who have such high public health standards, are prepared to let their reservoirs be used for all kinds of boating activities, it shouldn’t be a problem for us.’ The crown jewel in this interactive exercise between man and water will be the upcoming $226 million Marina Barrage project. It was conceived almost 20 years ago by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who envisioned the idea of damming up the Marina Channel and turning Marina Basin into a reservoir. But apart from its functionality, it will also serve as a recreational and tourist attraction where people can visit a gleaming Visitor Centre, enjoy water sports and concerts and even walk along the Barrage. ’I insisted that there must be a place there where people can actually dangle their feet in the water, so that they can feel the closeness to the water,’ says Mr Khoo. Another way he hopes to foster this closeness is by dressing up Singapore’s canals. In the past, engineers turned rivers into canals so that water flow could be better managed and floods prevented. Says Mr Khoo: ’They are very important functionally. But there’s no reason why we can’t design engineering-looking concrete longkangs to be beautiful rivers with flowing water and lush landscapes, and integrate them with the community.’ The PUB’s ABC (Active, Beautiful and Clean) Waters Programme furthers this objective. ’Imagine Kallang River or Whampoa River looking like a natural river you can walk along or kayak on. Imagine part of the river flowing into the lotus pond in your condo, with waterfalls and fountains. That is not something that is far-fetched.’ Getting people involved is also something Mr Khoo actively promotes within the PUB. In 2004, he introduced a performance-based salary structure as well as something called the $10K-Ideas Challenge. The latter promises $100 to any employee who submits an idea which saves PUB $10,000. Within a year, 204 ideas were generated, with projected savings of about $14.5 million - well worth the $20,000 PUB will give out to the employees who suggested the ideas. The scheme encourages those in middle management who are very often the source of many good ideas. I picked $10K so that the scheme would be within their authority limits. They don’t have to refer to a higher authority for approval as they would have to if it were a $1 million challenge. This way, I can say, go ahead, come up with as many ideas as you can.’ Future plans HISTORY is littered with accounts of wars fought over water, which is becoming more and more scarce as the world’s population grows. The United Nations predicts that by 2025, the world will have 30 water-scarce countries. Seen in this sobering global context, the PUB’s role in ensuring Singapore’s survival is even more important. Providing water is not enough. There is also a need to secure it and ensure its potability. The PUB is ’paranoid’ about making sure that tests are conducted throughout the entire water delivery system, says Mr Khoo. ’Every month we conduct 80,000 tests on our water. We have labs that can test for minute amounts of chemicals or pathogens. ’We work very hard to make sure that our drinking water standards exceed those of the World Health Organisation and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.’ In addition, there are stringent internal as well as external audits on the water system. Says Mr Khoo: ’The world is very interested in what we’re doing. One-third of the people in Asia now live in cities. The Asian Development Bank forecast that by 2020, half of Asia will be living in cities. There will be problems of how to supply water to urban populations. That will be something that will be of great relevance to us.’ You could say that Mr Khoo is in a burgeoning industry that is seriously fun. It’s about survival, but it’s also about dangling your feet in the water. ’We are a mature organisation,’ he says of the PUB. ’But in terms of philosophy, culture and DNA, we are still a very young organisation which is always looking ahead. ’That is what I hope will continue to give the organisation its vibrancy and ability to serve Singapore,’ he says. ’And maybe the world,’ he adds quietly, as an afterthought. 13
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PUB launches new initiative to beautify Singapore's waterways

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