National Water Agency PUB launched a tender to engage professional engineering services for the proposed redevelopment of Kranji water reclamation plant (WRP) and Kranji NEWater factory. This water infrastructure will support existing and upcoming residential and industrial developments in the north and north-western areas, including Admiralty, Woodlands, Sungei Kadut Eco-District and Tengah new town in Singapore. By addressing the projected increase in demand for used water treatment and NEWater, the redevelopment will ensure sustainable water supply for these areas.
PUB worked with Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to identify an approximately 26-hectare site located to the north of the existing Kranji WRP, which will include a portion of land from the existing site, for new facilities. The existing plant will remain operational during the course of the redevelopment. The site selection has factored in environmental considerations and Singapore’s long-term land use needs.
Meeting future water needs
The existing Kranji WRP was constructed in the 1980s. This facility treats used water for further reclamation at the co-located Kranji NEWater factory to produce NEWater, or for discharge to the sea. With Changi WRP in the east and Tuas WRP in the west, the new Kranji WRP is the final piece of Singapore’s 3-node Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS) — a network of deep tunnel sewers that convey used water to three centralised WRPs. Together, these developments will strengthen the nation’s water reclamation system, increase used water treatment capacity, bolster NEWater production and enhance overall water resilience. The implementation of DTSS is said to alow PUB to reduce the overall land footprint of the used water system across Singapore by half.
The new Kranji WRP will replace the existing plant and adopt technologies such as membrane bio-reactor (MBR) and thermal hydrolysis process (THP) to produce higher quality treated effluent. Unlike conventional used water treatment process at the current Kranji WRP, MBR reportedly reduces treatment footprint by 30% while producing higher quality effluent, which will optimise the NEWater treatment process. Hence, the new Kranji WRP is said to have a larger used water treatment capacity to meet future demands while occupying a similar land area as the existing facility.
Developing sensitively
PUB and URA worked with other agencies at the upstream planning stage to factor in environmental and land use considerations. With the development of the Sungei Kadut eco-district and the redevelopment of the Singapore racecourse site near the existing Kranji WRP, the existing Kranji WRP site, near Kranji MRT station, can be freed up for higher intensity uses such as new industrial workplaces that will allow convenience of being close to a public transport node.
PUB’s tender seeks to appoint a consultant for professional engineering services (PES) for planning and preliminary design of the future Kranji WRP and Kranji NEWater factory on the identified site. As the identified site includes a section of the former Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) railway alignment, a 10-hectare plot of vegetated land, and a cemetery at the former Kampong Wak Selat, a scope of the PES is to carry out an environmental impact assessment (EIA) to assess environmental impact of the redevelopment, and conduct a heritage study of the former KTM railway alignment and the former Kampong Wak Selat and cemetery at the site. Nature group representatives have been consulted to help scope the EIA to ensure a robust study.
PUB and URA are committed to addressing potential environmental and biodiversity impacts and will work with NParks, agencies and stakeholders to adopt mitigation measures. In strengthening Singapore’s water resilience, a good balance between optimising land use and the need to protect the environment must be met. Construction work is expected to commence in 2027 and the new Kranji WRP and Kranji NEWater factory are expected to be operational by 2035.
