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For a country that brought to the world the technology to recycle sewage into high-grade reclaimed potable water, the Republic is now making strides in another world-first: Variable salinity technology, which would turn almost the entire island into a water catchment area, as national water agency PUB strives to make use of every drop of rainwater. TODAY has learnt that following a successful pilot, PUB plans to ramp up the technology, having recently identified eight potential sites across the island, including one at Jurong, at which to build new plants. PUB had revealed that it was looking at using more of the technology - without giving details - in a letter to this newspaper last month, in a response to a reader's suggestion to harness water in the streams and rivulets near the shoreline. Currently, two-thirds of Singapore's land surface is a water catchment area. But, according to PUB, a considerable amount of rainwater still goes to waste at smaller rivulets situated at the island's outskirts. With the new technology - which has the dual function of generating potable water from brackish water and sea water - about 90 per cent of the island will become a water catchment area. During wet spells or periods of heavy rainfall, an inflatable rubber weir built into a canal retains rainwater that is otherwise drained into the sea. The water from the canal is transferred to a variable salinity plant. During the purification process, the water is filtered to remove particles of less than 100 micrometres in size. The water is then desalted when it is run through reverse osmosis membranes. During dry spells, however, the variable salinity plant switches to "seawater" mode, and seawater is pumped into the plant from a pipe spanning 190m offshore. The seawater stream is passed through seawater reverse osmosis membranes and then through the brackish water reverse osmosis membranes to obtain salt-free water. PUB spokesperson Sarah Hiong told TODAY: "The variable salinity plant is the first of its kind in the world, and is designed to produce drinking water from seawater and brackish water at an affordable cost." With some parts of the island seeing only minimal rain for up to four-fifths of the year, it would not have been cost effective to build conventional systems for small catchments such as streams and rivulets near the shorelines. The PUB launched a prototype variable salinity plant at the Bedok NEWater facility in 2004. Bouyed by its success, a S$7.4-million demonstration-scale plant was constructed in 2007 at Sungei Tampines. And for the past five years, the plant has been working around the clock, processing up to 2 million gallons (9.1 million litres) of brackish rainwater per day - or about 0.5 per cent of Singapore's daily water consumption, which stands at 380 million gallons. Like NEWater, the water processed by this latest technology is safe for drinking, meeting or surpassing drinking water quality guidelines and standards by the World Health Organization and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. But as the yield is small, all product water is currently used to augment the supply of NEWater used to meet industrial needs. Ms Hiong noted that 55 per cent of Singapore's total water demand comes from the industrial sector. "NEWater is primarily supplied to industries, and (the new technology) frees up potable water from catchment areas for household consumption," she said. Four of the potential sites identified for new variable salinity plants are in the eastern part of the island, and two each in the western and north-western parts. One of the sites -to be situated in Jurong - will ultimately be capable of processing 1.3 million gallons of seawater or 2.6 million gallons of brackish water per day. As the new technology make inroads here, members of the public have more reasons not to litter. "Rubbish thrown on the ground can be washed into drains when it rains, and end up in a canal, which is collecting rainwater for our water supply," Ms Hiong pointed out. Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/sin...1205397/1/.html

SINGAPORE : A teenager has pleaded guilty to three counts of molest - with one of the victims being an 11-year-old girl. Eighteen-year-old Muhammad Sadiq Syed Kadir entered a lift with her at Block 45, Chai Chee Street at 5.40pm on January 27 last year. Shortly after the doors closed, he grabbed hold of her t-shirt and pushed her backwards, causing her to fall to the floor. Muhammad Sadiq then pulled down the girl's shorts and molested her. He stopped touching her by the time the doors opened. However, the girl managed to tell a man who was standing outside the lift about her ordeal. The man threw a punch at Muhammad Sadiq and a scuffle soon broke out between the two. The teenager broke his nose in the fight and the man brought him to a Singapore Civil Defence Force fire post located at the void deck of the block of flats. Muhammad Sadiq was taken to a hospital and the police arrived not long afterwards to interview the girl. The court also heard that he had molested a 19-year-old girl in a lift at Block 19 Chai Chee Road at around 11.45pm on 16 August 2008. Deputy Public Prosecutor Sanjiv Vaswani told District Judge Soh Tze Bian that Muhammad Sadiq had also molested a 17-year-old girl at around 3pm on August 28 last year. She was sitting in an SBS bus service 7, which was going towards Bedok Interchange, when Muhammad Sadiq sat down behind her. He then pretended to fall asleep and used his fingers to touch her left breast. The girl reported the matter to the bus captain who detained Muhammad Sadiq at the control station of Bedok Interchange. The judge has called for a probation as well as a Reformative Training Centre report. Muhammad Sadiq will appear again in court on July 21. Those convicted of molesting children below the age of 14 could be jailed between three and ten years, and caned. - CNA/al Muhammad Sadiq sure kena canned jialat jialat Cant believe it man.. if the girls were your daughter, how would u have reacted?

Teacher faces 8 counts of forging answer scripts By Elena Chong Shanti Krishnasamy, 39, is accused of forging the pupils' answer scripts intending to deceive the markers of the PSLE Tamil papers into believing that they were given by the students. -- ST PHOTO: DOMINIC WONG A PRIMARY school teacher was on Tuesday charged with eight Shanti Krishnasamy, 39, is accused of amending the answer scripts with intent to deceive the markers of the papers into believing that the answers came from the pupils. It is believed to be the first such case. The alleged offences took place in Canberra Primary School on Oct 5, where she was invigilating the examination. She is alleged to have gone through the three pupils' answer scripts and made changes in them to improve the answers before submitting them to her supervisor. Shanti, who is represented by Mr Anand Nalachandran, is out on $10,000 bail. Her passport has been impounded, and a pre-trial conference has been fixed for Feb 20. If convicted, she could be jailed up to seven years and fined for each count. From: http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/...ory_203704.html Labels: News