What do you need in conducting Field Studies of Water Quality in Singapore?

Hi Mr. Ko, 

I am a <> student from <>. One of the courses I am enrolled in this semester is focused on aquatic ecosystems, and we were tasked to conduct research in an aquatic system of our choice so that we can apply the things we learn from the course. I came across your blog as I did my research and I find your book on WQM in Singapore really helpful. (Thank you so much for making it available for download.)

My research proposal is to test for fecal coliforms in one unprotected catchment here in Singapore, and I have chosen Bedok reservoir. I have noted from your book though that water quality testing in Singapore reservoirs can be quite a sensitive issue since they are directly tied to national security i.e. water supply, so getting a permit for water quality testing in a reservoir can involve some hassle, and your advise to have rivers as alternative study sites. I will still try to secure a permit to collect sampled from the reservoir,  but I just want to check (as a back up plan), by recommending rivers as an alternative site for study, do you mean that no permit is necessary? I tried to check online but I couldn't confirm it. 

Thank you very much in advance and I hope to hear from you. 

Kind regards, 

Michelle 

Hi Michelle,

Technically speaking, all waterways in Singapore are under the jurisdiction of PUB with the exception of certain water bodies under NParks. Therefore, permission has to be sought for any unauthorised activity in them. However, except for the major waterways and canals e.g. Singapore River, Kallang River, there is no system in place to give you that permission.

I am not sure how extensive your testing is going to be or whether you intend to publish your findings. Hence, if there are no implications from your study that are sensitive or give rise to any publicity, it is probably fine to conduct your own study in a minor waterway.

Good luck

CK

Removing hormones from drinking water

This post is a follow-up from a previous one: Hormones in our water supply and should we be worried

Hi Chen Ko

Thank you for your response and insights.

I did not realise that pesticides also contained hormones! That's a little worrying.

Would there be any reverse osmosis systems you would recommend?

Thanks.

Best regards

C

Hi C,

Pesticides technically do not contain hormones. However, some pesticide molecules resemble hormone molecules hence exerting similar effects.

As mentioned previously, a reverse osmosis (RO) unit with pre- and post carbon filtration will be up to the task of removing hormones in water. As mentioned elsewhere in this blog (1, 2, 3), I am an advocate of NSF/ANSI certification for household water filtration units.

You can try this RO unit from Amazon which is certified under NSF/ANSI 58 (the standard for RO units) for system construction. Before the water goes into the RO membrane, it passes through a sediment filter, granular activated carbon filter and an activated carbon block filter which should do a good job at pretreatment. After the RO membrane, the water goes into a post activated carbon filter which should clean up the final product nicely. But as I mentioned previously, there is no certification to reduce hormones specifically so this unit certainly is not certified as such.

Do read up another of my previous posts on RO: Is RO (reverse osmosis) water drinkable? Busting some of its myths and reiterating some of its truths

Cheers

Chen Ko 

A capable set-up for an RO unit