Speech by Coordinating Minister for Public Services and Minister for Defence, Mr Chan Chun Sing, at Singapore World Water Day 2026 on 17 March 2026

Minister Grace Fu, colleagues from the Government and all our guests from the private sector, thank you very much for joining us today. I think most of you turned up this morning, bright and early, because you are converts of water conservation. But today we have a serious message, and I hope that you can help us spread this message.

Singapore's Water Journey: From Past to Present

If we look back to 1965, I think those of us in my generation will still remember that geography lesson was relatively simple. When you were asked in an exam how many reservoirs were there, I think the answer was three: Pierce, Seletar, MacRitchie. Quite easy. Today, if we put the same test and ask, how many reservoirs does Singapore have? Still possible, but a bit more challenging.

That is the journey, or part of the journey of our story of how we have overcome, or continue to try to overcome, our water challenge. Water was existential to us in 1965. Water will continue to be existential for us. But what has changed over all these years is that through the efforts of our Pioneer Generation and the young pioneers now, we continue to make sure that we have a more than adequate supply of water through multiple taps.

All of us present will be familiar with the four taps: from our own domestic source of water to importation from overseas, desalination and the recycling of our water. So that is the story that we have - from two taps to four taps, from three reservoirs to more than 17. I used to tell foreign guests, and I still tell them, every drop of water that falls on Singapore will be used twice before it gets evaporated. Two thirds of our land area, despite our urban density, are actually water catchment area. Today, it is easier to name how many storm drains still flow into the sea. You can count with one hand. All other sources - we have pretty much dammed up or we have used the water and been able to capture and use the water.

This is the story thus far, and it has been a very inspiring story. But today, we do not rest on our laurels. Today, I think we have new challenges ahead of us, but we also have new opportunities.

New Challenges for the Next Chapter

Let me highlight two new challenges that we have to confront and one new opportunity that we have to continue to write the next chapter of our water story.

First, today, whilst we say that we have the technology to largely be able to process the water that we need, we have shifted our water dependency to an energy dependency. Today, we export water technologies to many other countries, including many in the Middle East, but the Achilles heel, if you like, or the critical point, is still the dependence on energy. So for the next lap of our water story, we will not just need to have better technology, we will need to have more energy efficient technologies to manage our water supply.

These few days, everyone is concerned with the war in the Middle East, and you will have brought home the critical importance of our energy supply. But it is not just about the recent wars and conflicts that should make us think about a more efficient way of producing water. Over the longer term, with climate change, how to get clean, sustainable and renewable energy is a big challenge for Singapore. In fact, I have always said that if water has been the existential challenge for the last 50 years, clean, renewable and sustainable energy will be our existential challenge for the next 50 years. If we can get clean, sustainable and renewable energy in quantity, we will also be able to solve our water challenge.

So for all the engineers and businesses present here today, our first challenge for the next chapter of the water story is not just better technology to process the water that we need, but it is how to have such technologies with the lowest consumption of electricity or energy as much as possible. If we can do that, that will rewrite another chapter of our water story.

The second thing is, beyond talking about trying to provide more supply of water, we also need to manage our demand, from the household to the businesses. I think we have done much for the household, but we can do a bit more, and I think all of us have the responsibility. But this year, we want to make a special effort to encourage our businesses to do so similarly.

For our businesses, it is not just about saving a bit more money. Actually, if we are able to change our industrial processes to be much more water efficient or much less water intensive, it can become a competitive advantage. When we say that we want to have more sustainable water supply in Singapore, we do not mean just having a few leading companies with the best technology. In fact, we need every company to be water efficient in our processes.

It is the same for electricity. When we say we want a green economy, it is not just about having a few industries that are green. We want all our industries to be green and to be at the top of the league, if you like - top of the global league - in terms of their energy efficiency. Likewise for water, we hope to achieve that. We hope that the Singaporean companies here will be an inspiration to companies worldwide on how we can use water efficiently together with energy.

Government Initiatives and Support

This is why the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE), together with PUB, have set aside a Water Efficiency Fund to fund up to S$5 million per project to showcase and to spearhead the drive towards greater water efficiency. We also have the SG Water Saver Programme for selected 1- to 3-room HDB households. This year we also want to encourage the SG Water Champions with the Singapore Watermark Awards 2026. All these are efforts for us to try and encourage every one of us to make every drop count, and that is important for us.

So those are the two challenges - one on the demand side, one on the supply side. But I must say that we also have tremendous opportunity to rewrite a new chapter of our water story.

New Opportunities: Climate Adaptation and Urban Renewal

Many of you will know that we have set up a long-term plan for our coastal protection. Over the next 50 to 100 years, the entire map of Singapore will be gradually refreshed from our coastal protection to how we redevelop our housing estates.

Our challenge and our opportunity are this: as we plan for the climate adaptation through our coastal protection, as we plan for our new urban renewal, can we strive to up our water harvesting, up our water processing efficiency, and so forth? I think there are tremendous opportunities.

Just take the new Long Island plan as an example. You will combine not only new land for housing industries, but it will also provide us a brand-new opportunity to have yet another reservoir to strengthen our water resilience. When we look at the urban renewal by HDB across all the towns across the entire nation, there will also be tremendous opportunities for us to challenge ourselves if we can up our water catchment area beyond the two thirds that we have achieved previously.

Conclusion

There are tremendous opportunities for Singapore to be a showcase of what we can achieve. It is a tremendous opportunity for us to turn every constraint into an opportunity in the Singapore spirit. But like everyone else, the Singapore government cannot do this alone. PUB cannot do this alone. MSE cannot do this alone. That is why we want to work with all the community partners, all the business partners, so that together we can write the next chapter of the Singapore water story that will be an inspiration for the world. You will also be an inspiration for our future generations to dream bigger, to see further, and to make all these dreams come alive.

On that note, I thank you all for your effort to write our Singapore water story together, and we hope that with your ideas, with your energies, we will be able to have an even more water resilient future ahead. Thank you very much.