Kallang Riverside: Demographic Changes

In the previous few posts we looked at mainly both the present and future facilities of the Kallang river. In this post we will focus on the demographic changes of park users as a result of these facilities and the changing social structures in Singapore.

First off, Kallang River used to be heavily polluted as a result of various industry relying on the river to support their operations. The river inevitably became a dump for waste from industry and communities living along its length.

Today the river has moved away from industrial use towards a mixture of recreational activities and water-supply. The increasing proliferation of sports & water sports facilities near its mouth has cemented its place as a prime area for recreation. The addition of the Marina Barrage further down south joins the river with the Marina Catchment area to increase Singapore’s water supply. As a result, more people have been moving towards the river for recreation.

Wider Population Strata

I was quite surprised by this signage along Marina Promenade. On the surface it doesn’t look anything out of the norm because it’s just promoting park cleanliness. But it’s the second line below that’s really striking because it’s in Thai. Thai isn’t one of the major languages in Singapore yet it’s readily written here. One, this means that the park is frequented by Thais to the point where it’s worthwhile to keep a sign up in Thai. Second, it goes to show that there is some degree of stakeholder interaction and management by the governing bodies of the park. I would imagine that litter from the initial Thai users could have been a problem and such signage was set up to help alleviate this problem. It’s interesting because it’s no longer a pure environmental problem but also a societal one. The customs and practices of the Thai users could be really different thus there is a need to integrate them into the greater societal fabric in Singapore. Without this integration, ensuring the sustainability of the park would be much more difficult due to the litter from the new parties. Thus it’s really an addition layer in the socio-ecological system when new groups join communities and there is a need to integrate these groups.

Motorised Vehicles

There are also other signs focusing on changing users behaviours in the park. One that I saw concerned the usage of motorised vehicles in the park. Amusingly enough, I was just snapping a picture of the sign when a man on an electric scooter zipped right by me.

Personal Mobility Devices or PEDs in Singapore have increased dramatically over the past couple of years. What used to be only uncles scooting by on their electronic bicycles have expanded into a dizzying array of scooters, single wheelers and hoverboards. As these devices become increasingly commonplace in Singapore, I was wondering why parks still adhere to the practice of banning these devices. There is some discussion that parks should ban these devices due to their speed being high enough to injure pedestrians in the event of a collision. But the legal versions of these devices are not any faster than a bicycle; and bicycles are readily accepted in parks. What I am getting towards is that changes in society such as the rise of PEDs do have overflow effects on our ecosystems. The park authorities might have to restructure the park to accommodate the increasing trend of PEDs. An outright ban at the moment seems hard to enforce because honestly, how are authorities supposed to monitor all areas of the park for offenders? Thus the governing of such complex socio-ecological systems need to account for technological changes in society as well.