User:Stephchua/articledraft

The Public Utilities Board (Abbreviation: PUB; Chinese: 公用事业局; Malay: Lembaga Kemudahan Awam) is a statutory board of the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources under the Government of Singapore.

In 1963, PUB was set up to ensure an efficient, adequate and sustainable supply of water for Singapore. The PUB hopes to achieve its mission through its "Price-Minus" strategy where they aim to maintain high services but at the same time, keep the costs low.

In 2003, PUB introduced NEWater, to multiply Singapore's water supply. This further diversified the water supply to four sources: local catchment water, imported water, NEWater, and desalinated water.

PUB has a mascot called Water Wally intended to engage the public, especially children. Water Wally is featured on some of the signs on PUB property in Singapore.

PUB was awarded the Stockholm Industry Water Award in 2007.

The Early Years
At the beginning, Singapore's sources of water came from inland streams and wells. These small sources were sufficient for the few inhabitants on the island. As Singapore grew as a port city after its founding in 1819, a small reservoir was constructed at Fort Canning in 1822 to supply water to ships which called at the port. As time passed, the island's population grew to more than 50 000 and planning for Singapore's water became an issue. Fortunately, in 1857, philanthropist Tan Kim Seng made a donation for the building of Singapore's first waterworks and piped water supply. This donation allowed the construction of what is known today as MacRitchie Reservoir, named after James MacRitchie who oversaw the expansion.

As Singapore's population further expanded, the water supply had to be enlarged and improved. In 1910, the Singapore Municipality built Kallang River Reservoir, which was later renamed Peirce Reservoir in 1922 after Robert Peirce who was in in charge of its construction. Subsequently, Seletar Reservoir was built in 1920 and later expanded in 1940.

In early 1951, an expert on local government, Dr. L. C. Hill, was invited to provide advice about how hospitals, fire services, transport, electricity, and gas services should be ran. During that time, electricity and gas services were publicly administered by Municipal Departments, but Hill believed that a public corporation or board would have greater freedom of action in the provision of electricity and gas. This was the basis for the establishment of the PUB. The water sources developed during Singapore's early years were the main water supply at the time of PUB's formation in 1963.

Now
Over the last 40 years, through strategic planning and investment in research and technology, PUB has built a robust and diversified supply of water known as the "Four National Taps". The water supply comprises of: Half the land in Singapore is covered by a rainwater collection network. Rainwater is collected through a comprehensive network of drains, canals, rivers, storm-water collection ponds, and reservoirs before it is treated for drinking water supply. The marina basin has also been converted into a freshwater reservoir to supply 10% of Singapore's water. Singapore has been importing water from Johor, Malaysia, under the 1961 and 1962 Water Agreements, expiring in 2011 and 2061 respectively. However, dependency on foreign water is being decreased with an increase in production from alternative water sources. NEWater is high-grade reclaimed water produced from treated used water that is further purified using advanced membrane technologies and ultra-violet disinfection, making it safe to drink. It should meet 30% of Singapore's water demand by 2011. Singapore's seawater desalination plants produces 30 million gallons of water a day via reverse osmosis, meeting approximately 10% of Singapore's water needs. By 2060, this desalination capacity should increase by almost 10 times to meet at least 30% of Singapore's water demand in the long term.
 * Local catchment water
 * Imported water
 * High-purified reclaimed water (NEWater)
 * Desalinated water

Vision
Water for All: Conserve, Value, Enjoy

Mission
To ensure an efficient, adequate, and sustainable supply of water

Symbol
The three swirls that form an elliptical shape represents the water cycle, which is an integral part of PUB’s business. The three swirls represent the three major functions of PUB: water services, sewerage and drainage. The three different shades of blue in the swirl represent three different types of water: seawater, reclaimed water (NEWater) and catchment water.

Namestyle
The typeface for PUB is specially designed as one unit. It leverages on the fluid and efficient water resource management of which the organisation is well known for.

Tagline
The tagline Water for All: Conserve, Value, Enjoy calls upon all Singaporeans to take ownership of our water resources.

Organizational Structure
Management in Singapore's water service is overseen by a Board of Directors comprising of a chairman and between 5 to 10 members selected by the Ministry of Environment. The members of the board are selected from a broad spectrum of the stakeholders who are able to contribute to discussions of the workings of the organization. At present, there are 10 board members, with various backgrounds such as academia, unions, parliament, investors, finance and auditing sector, semiconductor and petroleum industries, military, nongovernmental organizations, and the public sector.

The current board members are :

Under the board of directors are the chief executive officer, five engineering departments and five support departments. The five engineering departments are:
 * Water supply
 * Sewerage
 * Drainage
 * Water reclamation
 * Deep-tunnel sewerage system