News

People Have to Wade Into ATM at Upper Changi Road After Pipe Leak Caused 10-Hour Flood

2022-05-17 , 10:17 am

Have you ever seen a man-made river from a burst pipe?

If you haven’t, you can commit the image to mind now.

Burst Pipe at Upper Changi Road

When one of the main pipes of a HDB building turned bust at Upper Changi Road, it caused a large volume of water to gush out from the ground for more than 10 hours.

The maintenance team rushed over to resolve the problem upon receiving the news, fencing off the area until they had the damage under control, but it brought a bit of temporary inconvenience to the residents’ lives.

According to an account given by a Shin Min Daily News reader, Mr Zou, aged 53, this incident happened around 8pm last Friday (13 May).

While he was walking past Block 50 on Upper Changi Road, he noticed that ground on both sides of the pavement was overflowing with water and suspected that a water pipe had burst.

He remembered that he and the other passers-by had to carefully manoeuvre around the pooling water, and it was extremely inconvenient.

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Water Pipe Leakage Started at Noon

A nearby grocery store owner called Liu Bingtian told the Chinese newspaper reporters that he witnessed the water starting to flow out around 3pm. Even when he was closing shop for the day around 10pm, the water was still gushing out ceaselessly.

Likewise, Mr Yan, a 40-year-old working at a vegetables and fruits store mentioned that when he was going to the nearby ATM to withdraw some money, he realised that there was water spilling out from the side, but he could only wade across the water.

“The others were in the same situation as me, [we] were queuing up in front of the ATM to withdraw money as per usual, but we needed to be more careful when we were walking.”

Mate, why didn’t you save your wet ankles and slippers some grief, and find another ATM machine instead?

Mr Yan also said that the maintenance staff had already partitioned off the affected area by then.

The maintenance staff worked overnight to make the repairs, and the pipe finally stopped leaking around 6am in the morning.

Not the First Time

The 64-year-old grocery store revealed that this is the second time a water pipe had burst.

To his knowledge, a similar incident happened earlier this year.

Back then, the maintenance staff also worked overnight to repair the faulty pipe, thus resolving the problem.

He said, “My shop is located in the corner, and it was the closest to the pipe leakage. It was fortunate that the water didn’t flow into my shop, or soak the goods.”

Maintenance Team Dispatched Immediately for Repairs

Singapore’s National Water Agency, PUB, issued a statement that a problem had cropped up with the aforesaid pipe, which resulted in the water leakage.

It added that this was the first time a faulty water pipe had led to water leakage, and it bears no relation to the ongoing water pipe replacement project.

The spokesperson stated that when they received the news at 4:18pm last Friday, they immediately dispatched a maintenance team and a contractor to the scene to rush the repairs.

Moreover, PUB even deployed water trucks to distribute water bags to the affected residents, while they continued to keep tabs on the repairs. They confirmed that the water supply was restored by 10pm, and the repairs for the main water pipe was finished on the morning of the next day.

Everything is working as it should be.

Currently, the water pipes in the Upper Changi area are being replaced. The project started in the last quarter of 2021, and it should end by the third quarter of this year, if everything proceeds as planned.