Video Credit: Adventures Unlimited We traced the pipelines from Chinatown to Marsiling | The Singapore Pipeline Walk in 360°
It has always been my dream for many years to chase this dragon down. After years of following the tail of the dragon but never successfully tracing it all the way till it’s head, I finally took the opportunity to grab the dragon by its head instead. What better place to start than where the treasure lies, a gem coveted by the dragon for the last 97 years, the Pearl.
For those who have not clued in on what I had been alluding to, the dragon is the 22-km long water pipeline that comes into Singapore via the Woodlands Causeway. From Woodlands, it snakes its way across the island with the the dragon head finally lying on the top of Pearl’s Hill, spewing its precious treasure of water into the Pearl’s Hill service reservoir.
Pearl’s Hill is one of two hills located on either side of the Singapore River (the other being the Forbidden Hill or present day Fort Canning Hill). Captain James Pearl of the ship Indiana (the ship that brought Sir Stamford Raffles to Singapore in 1819) liked the hill so much that he began acquiring plot after plot of it from the Chinese gambier planters until he owned the entire hill in May 1822.
Pearl had the Chinese and Malay workmen built his house on top of the hill and cleared the slopes to plant pepper vines for him. He even briefly named it Mount Stamford to honour Raffles. However when Raffles, returned to Singapore from Sumatra in Oct 1822, he was not happy on hearing how the hill had been acquired without his approval. He then ordered its repossession by the British Government .
However Raffles immediately relented and accorded the ownership of the hill back to Pearl. Captain Pearl, disgruntled by Raffles' actions, then renamed the hill after himself. In 1828, when Captain Pearl retired back to England, his agents sold the hill back to the British Government
In 1861, upon completion of Fort Canning, it was realised that Pearl’s Hill was taller than Fort Canning Hill, and was obstructing the trajectory of the guns mounted on Fort Canning. Hence a decision was made to shave off the top of Pearl’s Hill. Soil from this hill was also used to reclaim the land at Commercial Square (now known as Raffles Place). Today, Pearl’s Hill stands forgotten behind the row of huge complexes & HDB Flats along Eu Tong Sen street.
Atop Pearl’s Hill lies the Pearl’s Hill Service Reservoir, which has a high level of security, with barbed wire fences surrounding a fortified structure. In its early years, it was known as High Service Reservoir. Today, it is one of the oldest surviving service reservoirs built by the British. Service reservoirs are used to store drinking water to be supplied to surrounding households & are located on higher grounds to maintain sufficient water pressure.
What is interesting too is that the history of water storage on Pearl’s Hill actually began with a ‘Criminal Prison Reservoir’. This was indicated on a survey map of 1884. This supplemented the water supply for the guards and inmates at the Outram Road Prison. Pearl’s Hill Service Reservoir was subsequently built between 1903 ~ 1905.
The construction of the Causeway water pipeline only took place in 1923 when the idea to import water from Malaysia was accepted. This led to the creation of the Municipal Pipeline, and with it, potable drink water from Gunung Pulai in Malaysia was piped into Pearl’s Hill Service Reservoir in 1929. One of the key person overseeing this project was the head of the Municipal Water Department then was David Joseph Murnane, who was Singapore's longest serving municipal water engineer, serving from 1925 to 1947.
The dragon’s body is mostly underground with glimpses of the body being seen here and there throughout its entire length including stretches besides the BKE (Bukit Timah expressway) near Woodlands, Fifth Avenue, Coronation Road, Farrer Road, etc. Part of the subterranean pipes even passes between the tombs of Tan Tock Seng and Chua Seah Neo in Outram, then crosses Chin Swee Road before ending at Pearl’s Hill Service Reservoir.
One of the more picturesque part of the dragon body is located at Ganges Avenue (named after the Ganges River in India). It has become a favourite photo taking spot for hikers who chase the dragon. Here you can see the dragon flexing it’s twin back in a magnificent arcing manner, complete with spikes.
If you are around the vicinity, do drop by the park to look for the Pearl & check out the arcing dragon back of Ganges.
