Visiting Bedok Reservoir Park (Cont)

I originally planned to cover a different SES in Singapore weekly but have come to realize that such an approach has breadth but lacks particular depth in analysis as I cant fully appreciate the nuances that each SES governance system has. Therefore ill be scrapping the weekly SES plan and instead spending more time on SES which I feel need more coverage to ensure proper analysis.

Pumping Station

BRP serves as one of two reservoirs built as part of the PUB Bedok Water Scheme to collect stormwater from urban catchment areas in order to meet the demand for fresh water in the eastern parts of Singapore. The picture above shows the pumping station located at BRP which is in charge of pumping the water in the reservoir to the water treatment plant Bedok Waterworks located 400m away (National Library Board, 2009).

The pumping station is located at the opposite end of the main entrance, away from most of the facilities available in the park. Users of the park track will without a doubt pass by the station as the park track leads right to it. It’s a restricted zone with numerous “Keep Out” signs posted around its perimeter thus I couldn’t really go closer to snap more pictures.

Considering its importance as one of the major pumping stations in Singapore, I felt that security was rather lax around it as there was only one guard on station at the entrance. But I guess this is another issue that we can discuss later as it would be rather intimidating to park goers to be subjected to strict security as they pass the pumping station whilst moving along the park track. Which adds another governance issue where park authorities have to decide how much security should be in place to protect such zones without compromising on the enjoyment of park goers.

Park Hill & Event Stage

A little ways down from the pumping station is the small hill located right behind the park. It’s been converted into a giant piece of green space that is bare of trees along its surface.  The space is usually used for mass events such as runs and the like which require significant space for set up of infrastructure. The NParks facility booking website names this place the Activity lawn and supposedly can take up to 2000 pax.

This floating deck is the main event stage in BRP and is often used for various cultural performances. Its holding capacity is around 240 pax and is surprisingly free to use. I think it is currently being used for the Mid Autumn Festival celebration owing to the décor set up. Being free to book and use is quite the interesting decision on the part of the parks governing body. The deck needs significantly more maintenance than the other facilities such as the Activity lawn and yet there is no attached fee to it. Thus it makes me wonder how the park management actually came to this free to book decision whilst taking into account the maintenance costs and added demand that being free should bring.