At the end of the afternoon, by 35°C degrees, why not a little water pressure from the sewers? In Singapore, the government is trying to sensitize the population to the problem of drought and water shortages in the country. As everywhere, there are of course seminars and official communications. But the new idea of a state company to try to challenge people, is to launch a rather special drink: a beer made with recycled toilet water.
The National Water Agency of Singapore, the state-owned company that deals with the distribution of water in the country, had been looking for years for a project to try to make people understand this problem of the lack of water in Singaporean territory. This is a problem that is getting worse with global warming and soaring temperatures in the region.
The country is very small and does not have sufficient water resources. It has no mountains or large rivers and therefore has to import a large part of the water it consumes from neighboring Malaysia every day. To supplement these purchases abroad, Singapore also resorts to the capture of rainwater, the desalination of seawater and, of course, the recycling of its waste water.
Most of this wastewater is used in industrial sites, but a small part is already used to supply the City’s drinking water reservoirs. And it is with this reprocessed water that the country now produces its new beer.
And the result is a beer like any other, sold in a can or on draft in some restaurants, and called NewBeer. It is made following an artisanal recipe by a small local brewer, Brewsverk, which uses German hops, lemon flavors, yeast from Norway. The only difference with other brewers is that it is supplied with recycled water from Singapore’s public water giant. Once reprocessed with a series of filters and a special reverse osmosis system, this water is perfectly drinkable. It is even so cleansed and clean that it needs to be remineralised. Its taste is then similar to that of spring water, which is usually used by brewers.
You should know that it takes at least ten liters of water to make one liter of beer. Also, with the aggravation, everywhere in the world, of this problem of shortage of drinking water, other water giants are considering this option. A somewhat similar partnership is being tested with a brewer in the United States in the San Diego region. And the French group Veolia has also worked on a beer with recycled water in the Czech Republic.