PUB to give Bukit Batok Canal a makeover

Alice Chia Channel NewsAsia 17 Jan 15;

SINGAPORE: Come next year, Bukit Batok residents can look forward to new features in their neighbourhood, including two activity hubs and a spruced-up canal.

The makeover of the Bukit Batok Canal costs $400,000 and is part of the PUB's Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC Waters) programme. It is the first of four such projects to start in 2015. The other three are Kallang River (Upper Boon Keng/Sims Drive), Kallang River (Bishan-Braddell) and Sungei Bedok.

The 230-metre stretch between Bukit Batok West Ave 2 and 4 will be spruced up. There will be spaces for communal activities and timber seats along the waterway to encourage residents to gather and bond there.

Senior Minister of State for Health and Manpower Dr Amy Khor, who is also the MP for Hong Kah North, said: "By having a community water scape and a community space like this, we look forward to it becoming a community focal point, where the residents can come down, rest and relax, enjoy the landscape, the waterway as well as congregate and bond. And the area can be a hub for activities too."

As part of the makeover, rain gardens with specially selected plants will be incorporated along the canal bank. They serve the function of detaining and cleansing rainwater runoff before discharging the water into the canal.

Residents are looking forward to the makeover. Sitti Amnah, a 53-year-old housewife who has been living in the area for 29 years, said: "After the project is completed, I must call my clique, my friends, residents to come here to jog or walk with me."

Xie Guang Yu, a 33-year-old software developer who has been living in the area for around six years, said: "The children like greenery. When the area is beautified, we will bring them here more often to play."

The canal is the first of smaller ones in the west to undergo the PUB's ABC Waters programme. The programme was launched by PUB in 2006 to transform Singapore's water bodies into beautiful and clean ones with community spaces for all to enjoy. Over 100 potential locations have been identified for implementation over the next 20 years.

PUB's Chief Sustainability Officer Tan Nguan Sen said: "In the initial phase of the programme, we actually did the projects in all the major waterways, like Kallang River, Sungei Punggol, and also the reservoirs like Bedok Reservoir and MacRitchie Reservoir.

"So now, going forward, we want to bring the ABC Waters project to the heartlands to improve the liveability of the HDB estates."

Referring to the Bukit Batok Canal makeover project, Mr Tan said: "This project, for example, we are doing it within a HDB precinct. It's a small project but it will help to improve the environment, enhance the environment next to the canal. There'll be some other projects similar to this which we are going to start, for example, in Sungei Whampoa, Toa Payoh Lorong 8."

The construction of the Bukit Batok Canal project is expected to be completed by early 2016. To date, PUB has completed 26 ABC Waters projects, with 11 ongoing projects.

Bukit Batok residents will also benefit from two other projects costing $1.8 million. They will provide more community spaces for residents. The Ministry of National Development will be funding the cost of these projects.

Dr Khor said: "We're calling them the family hub and active-living hub. One is more family oriented, one is more towards the youths. But in both areas, there will be fitness corner, three-generation in that sense, barbecue pits, and also communal space where we'll landscape it -have sitting areas, pavilions and so on so that people can congregate, take part in activities and enjoy the breeze."

Feedback from residents will be sought on the draft plans. Construction for these two activity hubs will start in the last quarter of this year and is likely to be completed in 2016.

- CNA/rw/ir

Part of Bukit Batok Canal to be redeveloped for community purposes
Today Online 17 Jan 15;

SINGAPORE — A 230m stretch of Bukit Batok Canal, located between Bukit Batok West Ave 2 and 4, is being turned into a community space, announced national water agency PUB today (Jan 17).

Dr Amy Khor, Member of Parliament for Hong Kah North, was the guest-of-honour at the groundbreaking ceremony this morning.

Some of the features include rain gardens and timber seats along the waterway. A PUB statement said that the project aims to transform the neighbourhood into a “vibrant communal space while allowing residents to get close to and better appreciate the waterway”.

As part of the makeover, rain gardens will be incorporated along the canal bank to detain and cleanse rainwater runoff before discharging the water into the canal. In addition, creepers along the canal walls and new plantings will give the area an aesthetical boost.

PUB’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Mr Tan Nguan Sen, added that schools in the vicinity can use the site to learn how specially selected plants can cleanse water naturally and enhance biodiversity.

Construction is expected to be completed by early 2016.

The facelift comes under PUB’s Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC Waters) programme. To date, PUB has completed 26 ABC Waters projects with 11 ongoing projects. Seven ABC Waters projects will be completed this year, including at Rochor Canal, Sungei Tampines and Kallang River (Potong Pasir).