Last Update: Friday, December 5, 2003. 4:47pm (AEDT)
Singapore sewage recycling plant a tourist attraction
Singapore, always in search of creative ways to bring in tourist dollars, has unveiled a new attraction - a high-tech plant which makes sewer water potable.

The plant's multi-media visitor centre showcases the city-state's efforts to be more self-reliant in water and has become such a hit that the government has decided to put it on the tourist map.

The centre welcomed its 100,000th visitor on Thursday local time, just 10 months after its opening, and tour operators now offer it as a must-see for tourists, along with more familiar places like the Singapore Zoo and Raffles Hotel.

The plant purifies waste water into "NEWater" using membrane filters, osmosis and ultraviolet light.

Officials led by Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong have had themselves photographed drinking from a bottle of the water to assure Singaporeans that it is potable and, it is claimed, delicious as well.

NEWater was first used commercially in wafer fabrication plants, which require impurity-free water to produce semiconductors, and is gradually being pumped into reservoirs as part of the drinking water supply.

The Government's Public Utilities Board said in a statement that the NEWater visitor centre aims to teach people "how precious water is and why we should not waste water".

The water recycling program intends to reduce Singapore's dependence on raw water imported from Malaysia, whose price for the resource is a constant source of disputes between the two neighbours.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1004451.htm

http://www.the-jungle.net/emotes/puke2.gif

Don't know whats worse,the idea of drinking the stuff,or paying to see how it's done.

http://www.the-jungle.net/emotes/moon2.gif....anyone still thirsty? :)

Yum.

tasty!!

:) :) :)

I hope that 100,000th visitor got a special door prize.

Hmmm, so that's where all of my "OLDwater" goes.

Well, I've seen it all

I hope that 100,000th visitor got a special door prize.

Like an air freshener or some inscense maybe...

That just makes me want to puke

it may be clean and all, but it doesnt seem right...

I can see it now: they are all sitting in a room, with free water in front of them, not sure yet where they are, and then in walks a representative/curator/guide.
"well folks, have you been enjoying this water?"
group: "yes, it's very good"
"Good! Good!, Hey, bet ya didnt know that you're actually drinking what could be your very own urine!"

I hope that 100,000th visitor got a special door prize.

errr...I wonder what such a door prize could possibly be?