April 25,
2007
UNDER the sweltering sun, playing in a near-dry canal may seem
harmless to some.
It can even be an adventure.
This may have been what the fourteenagers were thinking as they
made their way into the canal in front of Block 182 at Bukit Batok
West Avenue 8 on Sunday afternoon.
But little did they realise that in a sudden downpour, the canal
can be transformed into a gushing, rapidly-flowing river of sorts,
its trickling stream becoming a swirling, fast-expanding water
mass.
At around noon yesterday, a team from The New Paper went to the
spot where the teens entered the canal.
It was calm, almost dry. Peaceful.
There was no ladder or line of steps leading down - only a few
rusty iron rods were seen sticking out of the canal wall.
They were not fixed and any accidental tugging could dislodge them
and send the climber falling backwards to the bottom of the
canal.
At that point, the depth of the canal is about 2.5m. And it is
about 5m wide.
It must have taken skill and some form of planning for the teens to
make their way down - the six rods were between 40 and 60cm
apart.
HOW DID THEY GET DOWN?
Even for a 1.6m-tall person like myself, I had to position myself
carefully and tip-toe at times to get to the next rung.
How the teens, who are shorter than I am, could get from one rung
to another is a mystery.
After making my way down, I had to tread carefully to avoid
slipping on the slimy moss. I had to struggle to keep my balance
even in the relatively dry canal, so the teens trapped under one of
the ledges would have found it impossible to stand firm in the
gushing rain water.
It was a quiet walk - until the canal went under the
expressway.
Suddenly, everything grew dark, and the chirp of crickets and buzz
of flying insects were replaced by the sound of vehicles zipping by
above.
Along the way, the occasional stream of water trickled out of small
drain holes.
This particular canal, the Public Utilities Board (PUB) said, is
like a highway. It is linked to all the smaller drains within its
catchment. (See graphics.)
Any screams for help by someone struggling in the water would not
have been heard because of the rain and traffic. The nearest block
of HDB flats is about 300m away.
I turned back, and made my way up the make-shift ladder of iron
rods.
I shudder to think what might have gone through the teens' minds
when they saw storm water gushing towards them.
When I returned in the middle of a sudden downpour at around 4pm, a
different sight greeted me.
It was also around this time that the teens were swept away.
Gone was the trickling stream.
In its place was a violent, pounding pool of water.
The PUB estimated it would take only 20 minutes for the water to
reach 0.7m, the maximum height based on the rainfall on
Sunday.
SWISHING WATER
This height would be around a teenager's waist.
Even with the thunderstorm, the swishing sound of the water could
be heard.
The water had turned sandy brown.
About 2km downstream, where the first boy managed to pull himself
to safety, the canal widens to about 15m (the breadth of a
basketball court) and is about 5m deep (two storeys of a HDB
flat).
This is near the International Business Park along Boon Lay
Way.
As I walked down the steps into the extremely wide canal, I thought
it must have been a miracle for the first boy, 13-year-old Alson
Chua, to spot some steps by the side and pull himself to
safety.
To be able to stay calm and swim to the side, with the gushing
water and debris swirling underneath must have been quite a
feat.
I'm not sure I would have been a strong enough swimmer to have done
that.
STROKE OF LUCK
Alson managed to find a foreign worker - on a Sunday afternoon - to
call the police.
That must have been a stroke of luck because he was right smack in
the middle of an industrial estate.
A man, who was picking up tin cans in the middle of the canal along
this stretch, told The New Paper in Hokkien: 'I know that I have to
get out when it rains because the current is very strong and
there's nothing to hold on to.
'But for now, in the sun, it's okay.'
He did not know about the incident on Sunday, or that one of the
four teens was found dead.
Near Block 408, Pandan Gardens, the water was already swirling even
before the downpour.
There was no knowing how deep the water was, but the canal looked
to be at least 50m wide (about three times as wide as a basketball
court).
This was where the two other teens were pulled to safety by
passers-by and the police - about 3.5km from where they were swept
away.
By the time they were rescued, they had been treading water for
about 45 minutes, hanging on to what appeared to be a rope to
them.
Again, how they managed to hang on, despite the currents and what
they went through, was a miracle.
Retiree Stanley Ho, 64, said: 'Water is deceiving - it may look
calm from where we're standing, but you'll never know the current
that lies underneath.'