Channel NewsAsia - Tuesday, June
17
SINGAPORE : Residents at Bedok Reservoir have a new S$350, 000
attraction to get their feet wet.
Foreign Minister George Yeo, who is also a Member of Parliament
for the area, officiated the opening of "Aljunied Boathouse @ Bedok
Reservoir" on Sunday.
It is the first dragonboat facility to be owned and run by a
constituency.
It was designed by Temasek Polytechnic students and took four
months to complete.
It will serve as a venue for residents and students to come
together and take part in the sport.
Mr Yeo said, "Dragon boating is getting more and more popular
throughout the world today. And in Asia, it has come back to life.
It’s an old tradition....which is refreshed, and reincarnated in
the 21st century, modernised, used by corporations for team
building And when MPs each rode a dragon boat two years ago, we
thought wow, if we can use this to strengthen our own committee
organisations in Aljunied GRC, it will be excellent."
When asked how the Boathouse would encourage Singaporeans to
take part in the sport, following the the recent fatal incident
where five Singapore dragon boaters perished in Cambodia, Mr Yeo
said, "The circumstances (in Cambodia) were different. That was
quite uncontrolled and even a little uncharted for us. Certainly
they should have taken more precautions.
"But in the case of Singapore, we’ve been at it for some time,
there may be a need for some fine—tuning, some tweaking of rules
here and there. But I think by and large, it is a safe sport and
one which is very enjoyable." — CNA/ms