Singapore promoted the invention of a Singaporean beer made from treated wastewater and jokingly referred to it as “sewage beer” at the United Nations Climate Change Conference that runs from Monday, Nov. 11, to Friday, Nov. 22, in the hopes it will inspire more water conservation. It’s part of Singapore’s national campaign to conserve water on an island nation of 6 million people where there are no natural water sources.
The water scarcity has forced the country to become a world leader in water management and innovations.
Ong Tze-Ch’in, chief executive of the Public Utilities Board in Singapore, said, “Our commitment is to recycle every drop of used water that we could get our hands on and to convert as much as we can to new water.”
“I think this for us, this is a source of water that is cheaper and much more accessible than desalination, and so we intend to maximize that as far as we can,” He added.
Singapore’s national efforts to conserve water also include catchment, desalination, recycling and water imports from Malaysia.
Climatologists warn as water resources become scarcer, more innovations like recycling wastewater, may be needed.
NEWBrew was reportedly invented in 2018, and attendees at the climate talks had a chance to try the beverage.
Ignace Mbouamboua, a Congo delegation member, said, “As long as they can make it clean, you know, when you drink this beer, you don’t feel that it comes from wastewater and all those things. But you know, that’s ok. If we can do something interesting with the water that is already used, that’s ok. You know, instead of just leaving it like that way.”
