how they clean the canals

keeping the waterways clean is no easy task, given that you have to contend with the ways of man and nature. from my observations, a lot of the rubbish in canals come from nature, mostly the dried leaves from trees. after a heavy downpour, the condom shaped nets at this canal outside bukit panjang will swell up with lots of brown leaves, among other things.

i once commented to my friend that the kallang river was so clean that one would be tempted to have a swim in it. however, i changed my mind about doing it when i saw the state it was in after it had rained the night before. the amount of rubbish was unbelievable and the cleaners had to go around in a boat and armed with huge nets to scoop the rubbish and transferred it into a container in the boat.

with many of the canals and rivers draining into the marina reservoir, it is even more critical that less rubbish reaches the area dammed behind the marina barrage. apart from nets, booms are placed across some of the canals and rivers to trap the rubbish.

how do they remove the debris from this narrow and shallow canal which is not accessible by boats? the rubbish is trapped in the elongated nets and although it is mainly leaves, it is still too heavy for the workers to carry it out of the canal. normally, once a week, the contractor will come in this lorry equipped with a fork lift to haul up the nets laden with rubbish and dump the rubbish in his lorry. however, during the end of the year rainy seasons, he may have to make three or four appearances a week at the side of this canal.