PUB appoints Black & Veatch to consult on Singapore's fourth desalination plant

SINGAPORE'S national water agency has appointed engineering consultancy Black & Veatch to provide consultancy services for the country's fourth desalination plant in Marina East.

Black & Veatch will do the preliminary design for the development of the plant under a Design-Build-Own-Operate (DBOO) arrangement, the consultancy said in a press release on Tuesday, noting that the plant will be designed to treat two different sources of water: seawater from the Singapore Straits and raw water from the Marina Reservoir.

After the preliminary design, it will continue to provide services to the PUB throughout the plant's development, it added, noting that the Request for Proposal for the development of the plant will be made in the second quarter of 2016.

It said its consultancy scope for the Singapore desalination project was "similar to those undertaken by the company for the ongoing second Changi Newater Plant and Tuaspring Desalination Plant completed in 2013", adding that it had also provided "detailed design" to Hyflux on the SingSpring desalination plant completed in 2005.

The Marina East plant is planned to have a capacity of 30 million imperial gallons per day.