Fence up Bedok Reservoir to stop more body count!

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“According to a tip-off we received from a resident living in Bedok Reservoir Road, another body was found in Bedok Reservoir, the ‘suicide hub’ of Singapore this morning”

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Another dead body found in the early hours yesterday at the infamous Bedok Reservoir! Since Nov last year, there are more than seven reported cases of death by drowning in the reservoir. It has become a watery grave for the depressed due to many reasons – the main reason is financial reason, not jilted by lover or failing school exams.

From my working experience, there used to be many such depressed persons jumping onto railway tracks before on-coming trains. When HHPSDs were installed in phases from last year till beginning of this year, we managed to ‘solve’ the problem. No more ‘one-under’ cases at our elevated tracks.

Is it also by mere conincidence that our two huge money making world class casinos – some call them ‘integrated resorts’, have also been in full operation since last year which led to much untold misery due to compulsive gambling? – the root cause of all evils and despair!

It’s no rocket science to understand why our infamous scenic reservoir is chosen by so many pathetic souls as the final destination of rest if only we just put the two together. Lost tons of life savings in casino, can’t jump on MRT railway track, so just head straight to scenic Bedok Reservoir to rest in peace! After all, there were many before them and there will many after them! The wheel of karma is turning relentlessly after the establishment of our filthy money making gambling resorts. It’s a manifestation of that evil implantation. Langgar!

Do we just sit by and watch more wretch souls heading to that watery grave? Or do we need our magnanimous former foreign minister George Yeo to initiate another Inter-Religious Organisation, community leaders and residents congregation for another blessing of our beautiful reservoir? Maybe, we need another one after all to appease those restless souls during this 7th month Ghost Festival.

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No matter how much prayers or blessings will not reverse this popular infamous watery grave! A better interim measure is to fence up the 4.3km perimeter of the reservoir. When I say ‘interim’ measure, I’m also acknowledging that we are only tackling the symptoms and not the root cause of such unflattering phenomenon. The Chinese saying “治标,但不能治本” is proven throughout the ages. Let’s see where they would head next if Bedok Reservoir is plugged!

“LTA says that since 2006, 92 people have fallen onto the tracks, whether by accident or otherwise. The 1.5-metre barriers are high enough to deter attempted suicides.”

Source

Read related article here.

Yahoo! Newsroom – Sun, Nov 6, 2011
“Sixth body found in Bedok Reservoir – Yahoo! News Singapore

Another dead body has been found at Bedok Reservoir.

It is the sixth one found in as many months at that same location.

The Straits Times reported that police received a call at 9:15am Saturday morning, informing them of a dead body floating beside a wooden platform near the Berlin Wall panels at the now infamous reservoir.

A police spokesman said that the corpse belonged to a 48-year-old Chinese man, who paramedics pronounced dead at 9:45am after arriving at the scene.

The body was discovered before members of the Inter-Religious Organisation, community leaders and residents gathered at a floating platform nearby for a blessing of the reservoir, initiated by former foreign minister George Yeo.

Police have classified the death as unnatural and are investigating.

Suicide counsellors urged authorities to take quick action in addressing this apparent trend in deaths at the resevoir.

Psychiatrist Nelson Lee told the same paper, “It’s quite alarming. People are concerned about whether it is going to become a trend.”

He suggested that the public should be better-educated on spotting signs of depression in loved ones, and for society to be more accepting of people suffering from mental health issues.

Lee added that signs should be installed with helpline numbers around the reservoir to dissuade others from taking their lives, a step the PUB said it’s considering.

However, resident Tan Tong Foo, 58, an air-con technician, doubts this would help. “If people want to commit suicide, the signs may not stop them. Maybe brighter lights can be installed around the reservoir instead.”

The most recent suicide incident happened almost two weeks ago when a woman in her 50s was found floating in the reservoir waters.”

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About Gintai_昇泰

I'm a Chinese Singaporean living in the Eastern part of Singapore. I tweet on current affairs & inspirational quotes. I blog on issues or events if they interest me. I write for pleasure. I also write mainly for my family and friends.
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34 Responses to Fence up Bedok Reservoir to stop more body count!

  1. YC Lan says:

    Do we know this for a fact? “It has become a watery grave for the depressed due to many reasons – the main reason is financial reason, not jilted by lover or failing school exams.” If it is indeed true, the casinos must definitely be part of this much-touted “national conversation.”

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    • Reservoir Guardian says:

      There could be one thousand and one different reasons why a person wants to end his/her life. Financial problem is just but one of the many reasons. Only the deceased knew best. We can only guess! Pure and simple.

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  2. ape@kinjioleaf says:

    People jump tracks, barricade tracks. People jump reservoir, barricade reservoir? People go ‘traditional’ jump high rise, barricade corridors?

    What’s the suicide statistics in Singapore? Increasing? Decreasing?

    What’s the cause or rather main factors these people commit suicide?

    What are the social networks and effectiveness of them?

    Too many questions, too little answers. Can’t comment further.

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  3. agongkia says:

    Are our brain not growing or cannot function properly?How does fencing up of reservoir and those suggestion help in prevention of suicide.There are many ways of suicide and even if one cannot do it in Bedok Reservoir.There are also so many reservoirs to do it.There is a reason to choose reservoir .I know because I have think of all ways to do it before and I can come to that conclusion that it is among the best.SInce its 7th month now,I will not go further.

    I use to suggest to those male joggers in the net who are staying around reservoir to help to do their exercises there.They can help to look out and save lives.You cannot expect to see mata or guard around to guard the reservoir.

    Nong nong time ago ,during a 7th month..I went for a morning walk in the early morning as usual at BR.A young sweet pretty lady was seen alone looking at the reservoir ,not in sport attire but in red.
    Being a kaypoh, of course I want to kay khiang and practise my Sweetsay talk………gave counselling to her like I gave to drug addicts before….”If no man around to give you happiness,agongkia is always around to help….”She left …..
    Today,she is happily married ………….leaving me watching at the reservoir alone .

    Tolong..Go and jog more at reservoir and help look out for those who needs help.And help those around you that need genuine help before they landed up in suicide .Very often,we do not realise that we are the one that indirectly cause them to be like that.Dun every time kay kay show sympathy and visit funeral after they are gone.No use one.

    And anyone that harbour the thought of suicides,please meet up with me before you do.

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    • Agongkia,
      I suggest that you jog at the reservoir more often. You can help us save lived and not make this reservoir a graveyard. Remember we drink water from there. Do you want to see more dead bodies there? It’s your drinking water understand that.

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  4. The says:

    Cordoning off the reservoir will be a drastic action. After all, the idea is for people to frequent these places and take part in water sports. ABC Waters Programme – Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters. How to take active part in water sports if they are fenced up?

    Let’s say we fence up Bedok Reservoir. And then what happens? They go to Seletar Reservoir, or MacRitchie, or Pierce or even to the Marina Barrage. Are we going to fence those up as well?

    Okay, all the reservoirs are fenced up. What next. They will go back to jumping off their HDB flats. Maybe we should also put window grills and corridor grills and padlocked all of them.

    Wait, they will dash across roads if we keep them off the waters and off highrise buildings. So, now we have to barricade all the roads.

    Sigh… When one wants to commit suicide, it is near impossible to prevent it.

    Live and let live. Die and let die.

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    • I did mention your concerns in my post using Chinese idiom & I did say interim measure. Classic mode is to jump from high rise buildings! Bedok Reservoir is the latest trend unlike the other older reservoirs. Langgar!

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      • Death Angel says:

        The interim measure that you proposed will not work neither economically nor effectively. You need money to erect the fencing. Then you need money to dismantle the fencing later. It is not effective, as all those who had commented agreed that there is no way to stop a person who wanted to die from ending one’s life. Even if you were to tie him up, he can still bite off his tongue to die.

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        • Any retard will know and agree that we can’t stop a person from committing suicide. 4.3km is not very long. Everything costs money in this world esp if you living in Sg. It’s a question of money well spent. Do we want to see some bodies to pollute this scenic reservoir? U can still the view even though it’s fenced up minus the dead bodies of course. Have you seen the coastal shore of Pulau Tekong? It’s fencing all the way to prevent illegal immigrants coming ashore.
          We can just ignore the problem and pretend it never happen letting the bodies accumulate. See how effective it is when HHPSDs were set. No more jumping on tracks. Does it not tell us something?

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          • Death Angel says:

            Base on your logic, then we should issue every Singaporean a collision proof body fencing around their body since we have more people died or injured from traffic accident while walking along the roads per year. It is definitely a case of money very well spend.

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          • I would like to have a set if it’s available? Lol!

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    • I think people who choose Bedok Reservoir are trying to make a statement. So fencing the place (with entrances that are monitored) will help to stop people from making such statements to a certain extent. Not 100% effective, but then, fences are expensive, life is cheap.

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  5. musingsofasingaporeretiree says:

    Bedok Reservour is a storage place for our drinking water. The very thought that the water we drink came from the reservour where many dead bodies were found will certainly make one’s stomach turn.Since the little red dot is so crowded and there are so many miserable and unhappy people, a alternative way must be found for them to escape from their hellish existence.Just do not do it in the reservour . It makes one squeamish just the thought of drinking water from the reservour.
    Perhaps we should encourage those who are bent to end their lives to go back to the highrise or the train. We can do this by engaging Fengshui Master to change the fengshui of the reservoir to make less tempting for people to die there or to put up “crocodile'” signs around the perimeter with some plastic croc to frighten away the would-be-suiciders.

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    • Trains no more chance after they “fence up” the platform. That’s why they go to Bedok Reservoir. Maybe, putting crocodiles or piranhas there more cost effective? No easy solution right? If readers disagree with my idea of fencing then pls come up with alternative solution rather that just say cannot work but offer no other idea lah.

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      • ape@kinjioleaf says:

        I disagree with fencing up…. even the MRT platforms. The cost is financed by taxpayers.
        The question about suicide cases is ‘does it warrant a state action?’.
        We’re guessing here. It seems more people commit suicide… at Bedok Reservoir. Is this really the case? Or is our MSM REPORTING more about suicide cases at Bedok Reservoir. We’re guessing. We assumed that the cost living is high. Those killed themselves are facing hardships financially, or so we thought. We attribute blame to the casinos, high cost of living, stressful environment but are these the case? What’s the profile of these people? Chronically ill? Gamblers in dire debts? Students who flung exams? Failed relationships? Age group? Financial status? Ethnic? Do we know? The police handles these cases, right? Are they profiling? If they are, is there anyone looking at these profiles? Even location of death… is Bedok Reservoir the ‘choice’ venue? If so… why?
        Too many questions… too little answers from people who could and should find some answers.

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        • As we speaking, another body was recovered from Bedok Reservoir barely 12 yrs later!

          Second body found in Bedok Reservoir

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        • agongkia says:

          IMO,Platform fencing up is more on safety reason as the design made is a mistake that many are not aware and can lead to passenger falling easily into the track.Many cases in such area ,in my view are accidental than suicides.Claiming suicides can make others think that it is the fault of the victim who choose to do it himself.The fault here to me is poor design.
          I support the fencing in MRT because the design is wrong in the first place and the only thing to prevent more death is by having that fencing.

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  6. River man says:

    Can’t we have CCTVs installed?…excessive already found in MRT stations

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    • If install CCTVs, you need to employ guards to check and monitor. Extra costs.

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    • Death Angel says:

      The idea of installing CCTVs is worst then building fencing. At least fencing does prevent people from jumping straight into the reservoir easily but what can the CCTVs do except showing us how they jump? Back somersault 2 cycle, forward somersault 1.5 cycle?

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  7. Death Angel says:

    For those who are determine to end their life, perhaps they can consider doing the rest of Singaporeans a big favour by dying infront of the Istana or the parliament. The vehicles travel along the road infront of these two places are quite fast. So they can dash out and get know and get themselves kill. Then our president and those mps and ministers will be informed that more people are killing themselves. Of course, we should not encourage people to commit suicide but for those who think that living is worst then dead then these two places are ideal especially if their reason for wanting to die is due to economical hardship.

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    • That’s a worthy suggestion! At least they sacrifice themselves as heroes!

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    • agongkia says:

      Cannot play play .You propose to those who face economical hardship to do SINkapoorean a big favour by choosing those locations and the way they die just to catch president and minister attention?For what?can get Pek Kim from them?And some claim they dirty the drinking water?Why not also suggest they offer their spare part before they go?
      I said before,many do not realise somehow ,in one way or another , are also to be blame because of their fate .
      Show more concern by giving love and attention to those around us.Never cheat ,bully ,flame or take advantage of others .You all cannot prevent but can help to reduce the number of suicides.

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  8. NUSboy says:

    I think we should stop reporting this kind of suicide, it is well know that reporting suicides will result in “copycat”.

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    • In that case, we all hide our heads in the sands just like the ostrich and pretend such things don’t happen at all. Press also can’t report such cases.

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    • NUS senior citizen says:

      Don’t you worry lah…….when the suicide rate at Bedok Reservoir becomes one too many that it affects the pap’s reputation or public opinion, the local msm will automatically stop such reports in their print. Ah boy, you still schooling ah waiting until you graduate and start working then you will know how Singapore’s msm works lah!

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      • MSM = State Propaganda Organ. If you agree pls Kee Chiu!

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      • Anonymous says:

        Looks like you also don’t know how the Straits Pravda Times works. They will not automatically stop – they will be told to stop.

        Looks like there are a lot in common between the very young and the very old.

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