Water & Wastewater Asia September/October 2019

COMPANY PROFILE | 51
this obstacle. “Because of the intent of the
project we were able to get land donated
by the community, residents, Channel
NewsAsia, and many others who visited
the sites… It was stunning. Many were
like: “Does this really work?” “Why should
we trust you?” But they saw the results of
our first project, and then the other three
accelerated very fast.”
Today, the plants are manned by five local
staff. Lim elaborated, “We have to work
with the communities, and the people
there have to give money or donate land.
Otherwise, there’s no way to start a used
water treatment plant. A lot of people think
that the way to get into a market is that you
have to give benefits to local officials and the
like. But there’s another way to get business,
which is to give benefits to the local people
instead. If you’re benefitting the local people,
you’ll be welcome – the technology we use
is 100 per cent designed in Singapore, but
procurement is all local.”
LOCAL GROWTH
Besides working in countries like India,
Ecosoftt has completed projects back at
home. Said Lim, “The first project we did
was in JTC CleanTech Park as a wastewater
treatment plant on the ground floor of the
building, in the garden. Our thinking has
always been that wastewater treatment
plants are smelly and we don’t want to see
them, but here we’re putting it at the front of
house. The idea is that if you use and reuse
every drop of water within the building, you
take less water from PUB and discharge less
into PUB’s network, thereby reducing the
demand on the national infrastructure. The
plan now is to scale it up, first to other JTC
developments, then hopefully the authorities
can make this a formal policy.”
Samuel added, “The very proposition that we
had was to enable clients’ buildings, schools,
hospitals, to reduce their freshwater intake
by more than 50 per cent, to recycle and
reuse more than 80 per cent of the used
water, and to either give it back to mother
nature, or to the grid in an environmentally
friendly way. From there we went to Zero
Discharge, now we’re working on Net Zero.
The reason is that less than two to three per
cent of our footprint is for potable purposes,
and we’re using a lot of potable water for
non-potable purposes. We’re able to relook
this whole equation and reset the balance
by making sure we are more water-smart.
Everybody must play a part, so while PUB is
building the superhighway for collecting and
treating the sewage collected on the ends of
the island by gravity, that doesn’t mean you
can put paint and oil and chemicals into it.
You have to meet the discharge standards,
and those standards and norms are going
to get more and more stringent. Reduce the
water intake, reduce intake of fresh water,
recycle as much as you can, and discharge
in a compliant way. That’s going to be the
order for the next fifteen years or so.”
LOOKING FORWARD: SINGAPORE’S
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE SECTOR
According to Lim, Singapore’s social
enterprise sector is still growing, but faces
challenges of being undercapitalised. “A lot
of investors, are interested in the sector,
but they find the sector and business model
are not proven to the point where people
feel they will be able to generate adequate
returns. We need a few successful models
where we can demonstrate that the social
enterprise sector can be profitable and
financially sustainable, and yet be impactful
at the same time. That will generate a lot
more interest and a lot more confidence for
the money and talent to flow into the sector.”
Samuel added, “Water poverty is a global
phenomenon. Both rich countries and
developing ones are affected. Singapore’s
water story is also very powerful, it’s very
inspiring and something the world looks up
to. In terms of the social enterprise space,
I think Singapore’s clearly leading the way
for the region to develop business models
and promote sustainable models across
sectors.” WWA
Thanks to Ecosoftt,
water from the Narmada river
is now of potable quality
Water & Wastewater Asia • September / October 2019