Bukit Timah Canal Water Looks Like Swimming Pool; PUB Finds No Usual Discharge into Canal

Whether you’re walking home from school, crossing an overhead bridge on the way to work, or jogging around the neighbourhood, chances are you’ve passed by several canals without even batting an eye.

However, TikTok user Melvin Lee did a double take when he spotted a stretch of canal taking on a rather… interesting blue colour.

Water In Canal Near Keng Lee Road Turns Bright Blue

On 17 January 2024, Melvin posted a video on TikTok chronicling his peculiar discovery.

@vinnography Wait, why is the canal water in blue?? 😱 #sg #singapore #tiktoksg #fyp ♬ Cornfield Chase – Hans Zimmer

 In the video, the particular stretch of canal, located near Keng Lee Road and in the vicinity of the Newton Life Church and Chui Hui Lim Club buildings, looked like something out of an Avatar movie.

Instead of the usual muddy brown waters, one finds in a usual canal, the canal had bizarrely taken on a shade of bright blue.

In one part of the TikTok video, the canal was shown next to a condominium swimming pool, where it was shown possessing the same shade as the pool’s bright blue tiles.

Netizens Hypothesise Reasons For Colour Change

It seemed that netizens were curious to find reasons for the canal’s strange appearance.

A great deal of them had somehow reached the same conclusion: Perhaps someone was planning to turn the canal into their own personal pool?

Some netizens joked that Singapore was slowly achieving its goal of attaining a Swiss style of living, with the sparkling waters of the Alps having made their way into one of the country’s unsuspecting canals.

More serious netizens were concerned that certain chemicals were the cause of the canal water’s unnatural colour.

In an interview with The Straits Times, Melvin initially thought that the colour of the water was due to a nearby festival or event. He also mentioned that he was shocked at the sight since he works near the vicinity almost every day.

Water in Canal Returns To Normal The Next Day

Despite the strange sight, it seems that the canal water issue was resolved with little incident.

On 18 January 2024, Melvin posted a follow-up TikTok explaining that things were back to normal, with the canal water in the video once again taking on its usual, taken-for-granted brown colour.

@vinnography Replying to @Kat ♬ original sound – vinnography

According to The Straits Times, PUB officers carried out an on-site assessment of the Bukit Timah Canal that ran between Keng Lee Road and Kampong Java Road. PUB reported that the officers “did not observe any traces of unusual discharge at the location or further upstream”.

PUB is currently investigating the incident and has warned developers and contractors in the vicinity that it is illegal to discharge substances into public drains and canals.

Not the First Time Singapore’s Waters Have Taken On Weird Colours

Most people would have remembered the time when the waters of Sentosa Cove mysteriously turned a bright shade of pink. The strange colour was found to be caused by an algae bloom caused by heavy rain.

In recent events, a canal in Toa Payoh turned milky blue (not unlike someone’s O-Level Chemistry experiment) in August last year.

However, the reason for the colour change remained undisclosed.

Singapore’s canals may take on bizarre colours due to dyes or organic solvents, as was the case in 2015, where a canal in Jurong West turned blood red and prompted an extensive cleanup by the NEA.