A fountain for Christmas? A massive pipe leak at Block 101 Potong Pasir Avenue at 10am on 26 December showered residents up to six storeys up.
The Public Ultities Board (PUB) deployed a team of service crew and contractor to the site after receiving a report of the leak on Wednesday morning. The leak was isolated by 10.30am and repair works commenced. By 2.15pm, water supply was restored. While repair works were underway, water was provided for those affected via water wagons and water bags distributed by PUB.
Some households even received water from a crisis response team from the Potong Pasir constituency which included MP Sitoh Yih Pin and several grassroots leaders who came back from leave to help out.
A resident has sent Mr Sitoh a photo of the water spraying out of the pipe at around 9.30am and Mr Sitoh drove over to help out. He said, “The first thing in my mind was whether there were any injuries, and how many households were affected,” he said.
The constituency’s crisis response team was also there to help out, stationing a member on the ground floor of the HDB block to reassure residents and take note of which units were experiencing a disruption of water supply.
According to Mr Sitoh, around 90 households across Blocks 101 and 102 were affected by the incident. His team managed to deliver water to about 30 households in an hour.
As for the cause of the leak, Mr Sitoh said he believes it was caused by the contractor for the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme. Apparently, residents of Block 102 were notified of a possible water stoppage on Wednesday by the contractor but the pipe burst was obviously not anticipated.
“We have reported the contractor to the authorities. PUB has been notified of the incident,” he said. PUB said it is investigating the cause of the leak.
This isn’t the first time a pipe has burst due to construction. In July, a water pipe at a construction site along Gambas Avenue burst sending water shooting up several storeys high. On Christmas morning last year (2017), a burst pipe cause water to spray up to 3 metres high along Tampines Avenue 4. And in November 2017, a water pipe damaged due to construction in Tampines affected water supply to the bus interchange and a good court at Eastlink Mall.
