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SINGAPORE \u2013 Singapore\u2019s tap water remains safe to drink, despite t<\/span><\/a>he recent persistent haze<\/span><\/a> and viral social media clips of blackish, soot-coloured rainwater causing concern among some Singaporeans.<\/p>\n In a video uploaded to Facebook on Oct 24, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu said that tests carried out by national water agency PUB have not found any unusual changes in the quality of Singapore\u2019s treated water.<\/p>\n In the video, Fu referred to social media posts that showed blackish rainwater collected amid the haze. She said she visited the PUB Water Quality Laboratory to find out what caused the discoloration and whether it affected tap water.<\/p>\n PUB collected some water samples on Oct 17, when the Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) was 193, Fu said. A figure of 101 to 200 on that index indicates unhealthy air quality.<\/p>\n Pointing to a rack of test tubes containing rainwater collected from Kranji and Ulu Pandan, run-off from Yew Tee and tap water, she said that rainwater collected during hazy conditions may be slightly more acidic and contain higher levels of particles and organic matter.<\/p>\n She added: \u201cThis is expected, as rainwater can pick up airborne particles and substances as it passes through the atmosphere.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the extent of discoloration, in other words, how black it looked, depended on whether it\u2019s rainwater collected directly or rainwater collected from run-off.\u201d<\/p>\n She stressed that, \u201chaze or not\u201d, rainwater collected should not be used for drinking,<\/span><\/a> cooking or personal hygiene.<\/p>\n An infographic in the video showed that the pH level of the rainwater collected on Oct 17 was 5.7, compared with 6.6 for \u201cmoderate-haze\u201d rainwater, 6.8 for \u201cnormal-day\u201d rainwater and 7.8 for treated water.<\/p>\n The pH scale \u2013 which ranges from 0 to 14 \u2013 measures how acidic or alkaline a substance is. A value of less than 7 indicates that the substance is acidic, and a value greater than 7 shows that it is alkaline.<\/p>\n Another infographic in the video, using nephelometric turbidity units (NTU) as a measure of turbidity, showed that the level for rainwater collected on Oct 17 was 5.7, compared with 3.6 for \u201cmoderate-haze\u201d rainwater, 2.1 for \u201cnormal-day\u201d rainwater and 0.21 for treated water. A higher value indicates cloudier water.<\/p>\n Water collected in Singapore\u2019s reservoirs undergo several stages of treatment to remove dirt, tiny particles and other impurities, Fu said.<\/p>\n Singapore\u2019s water treatment processes can filter out particles up to a hundred times smaller than PM2.5, which are removed during the treatment processes, she added.<\/p>\n PM2.5 refers to fine particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrometres or less, and is the dominant pollutant during periods of transboundary haze.<\/p>\n As an added precaution, PUB has also stepped up checks on water quality across the country, Fu said.<\/p>\n She added: \u201cOur tests have not found any unusual changes in our treated water quality.<\/p>\n \u201cSo while the blackish water seems worrying, our tap water remains clean and safe to drink.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE \u2013 Singapore\u2019s tap water remains safe to drink, despite the recent persistent haze and viral social media clips of blackish, soot-coloured rainwater causing concern…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/95348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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