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.'