Monday, February 28, 2011

Information on marina barrage

Singapore's latest downtown icon

The Marina Barrage is built across the mouth of the Marina Channel. It is Singapore's 15th reservoir and also the 1st in the heart of the city. The Marina Barrage is the island's largest and most urbanised catchment ,with a catchment area of 1/6 of Singapore (10000 hectares).

Water Supply

The Marina Barrage is a dam built across the 350-metre wide Marina Channel to keep out seawater. The reservoir would be combining with the future Punggol and Serangoon reservoirs. It will increase Singapore's water catchment areas from 1/2 to 2/3 of Singapore's land areas.

On 20 Nov 2010, the reversoir was crowned by Minister Lee Kuan Yew as a freshwater reservoir, boosting Singapore's water supply for generations to come. In April 2009, desalting began through natural replacement by rainwater.

Marina Reservoir will meet more than 10% of Singapore's current water demand as it is one of the pillars of local water supply.

Flood Control

The Marina Barrage is part of a comprehensive flood control scheme to sustain flooding in the low-lying areas in the city such as Chinatown, Boat Quay, Jalan Besar and Geylang.

During heavy rain, the series of nine crest gates at the dam will be propelled to release excess storm water into the sea when the tide is low.

In the case of high tide, giant pumps which are capable of pumping an Olympics-size swimming pool per minute will drain excess storm water into the sea.


Lifestyle Attraction

The water level of Marina Basin will be kept constant all year round as the water is unaffected by high tides.
This is absolutely excellent for all kinds of sporting activities such as canoeing, dragon-boating and kayaking.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Information-Singapore River

Singapore River

History ~.~!

The mouth of the Singapore River was the old Port of Singapore, being naturally sheltered by the southern islands. Historically, the city of Singapore initially grew around the port so the river mouth became the centre of trade, commerce and finance. To this day, area around the old Singapore River mouth, the Downtown Core, remains the most expensive and economically important piece of land in Singapore.
Ethnicity coming to Singapore river to be traders .

Pollution and cleanups
    Starting in the 1880s, there was heavy traffic on the Singapore River due to rapid urbanization and expanding trade. At the same time, it brought in water pollution caused by the disposal of garbage, sewage and other by-products of industries located along the river's banks. The sources of water pollution into the Singapore River and Kallang Basin included pig wastes from pig and duck farms, unsewered premises, street hawkers and vegetable wholesaling. Riverine activities such as transport, boat building and repairs were also found along the Singapore River. Some 750 lighters plied along the Singapore River and Kallang Basin in 1977. Waste, oil spills and waste water from these boats and lighters added to the pollution of the rivers.                               
Ten years later in 1987, the clean-up of the Singapore River and Kallang Basin was completed. In September 1987, the Ministry of the Environment together with other government ministries and statutory boards celebrated the success of the clean-up with an event called the "Clean Rivers Commemoration". After the massive clean-up, people can now engage in activities such as wayang performances on a bumboat, variety shows staged on pontoons anchored in the river, and boat races. Today, speedboats, dragon boats, pedal-boats and sampans can be seen plying on the clean waterways of the Singapore River.

Singapore River today

The river is now part of the Marina Reservoir after damming the Singapore River at its outlet to the sea to create a new reservoir of freshwater. While damming this area would create a valuable source of fresh water for the tiny city-state , it would have prevented the docking of ocean-going ships at the Singapore River which was arguably the original reason Singapore came into existence. The dam is known as Marina Barrage.