Woman distraught by 'massive death of fishes' in S'pore River, PUB finds no abnormalities in water

It was heartbreaking.

Stomper June was distraught to see a "massive death of fishes" in the Singapore River near Robertson Quay on Feb 7.

"I suspect this was recent as I didn’t notice this the day before on my walk," said the Stomper, who added that it went on for 2km.

"Please investigate and resolve if this is a man-made problem! So heartbreaking. I’m distraught."

She shared a video of scattered fishes floating in the water near a bridge.

In response to a Stomp query, PUB said that it was carrying out cleaning works and spotted the dead fishes along Alexandra Canal, which leads to the Singapore River, on the morning of Feb 7.

The national water agency said it immediately removed the dead fishes and took water samples from the canal for testing.

"PUB has been closely monitoring water quality in Alexandra Canal since the incident," added the agency.

"No signs of pollution were observed upstream of the location, while in-situ water quality testing did not detect any abnormalities.

"In addition, the water quality at Marina Reservoir – which receives water from Alexandra Canal – is within the normal range. Hence, the treatment of raw water from Marina Reservoir is not affected."

In a similar case recently, many dead fishes were also spotted at the former Orto leisure park in Yishun on Feb 4.

Sharing photos of the fish carcasses floating in the pond, Stomper Aqil was saddened and disappointed by the sight.

HDB told The Straits Times it was alerted to the “unusually low water level” in the pond on Feb 2.

“We have since removed the dead fishes and have started moving the remaining live fishes to a smaller holding pond at the same site. As this was the first time that the water level had seen such a significant drop, HDB is looking into the cause,” said the Housing Board.

The once-popular fishing pond was operated by Fishing Paradise in what used to be Orto leisure park before it was taken over by HDB for soil investigation and survey works in July 2023.

“Since then, HDB has been maintaining the site, including the pond and its fishes which have been retained to prevent mosquito breeding, pending the commencement of site clearance and earthworks in the first quarter of 2024,” said HDB.

Its contractor would fill up the pond whenever the water level in the pond fell below the usual level as part of the site maintenance, which is typically done every two days.