There's a new wetland attraction in Bukit Panjang - a revitalised Pang Sua Pond after a 30-month makeover by the PUB as part of the Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC Waters) scheme.
To better view the surroundings, visitors can take a stroll on a 480m-long timber boardwalk that is suspended 7m over the pond.
Just a 10-minute walk from the Senja LRT station, the park offers visitors a natural respite. It also offers an outdoor classroom to children from six nearby primary and secondary schools that have adopted the pond.
Originally built as a stormwater collection pond in the 1990s, Pang Sua Pond is now home to Singapore's second-largest man- made floating wetland system, after the Sengkang Floating Wetland in Punggol Reservoir.
The makeover, which started in June 2014, was completed in December last year.
At the northern edge of the pond, visitors on the boardwalk can catch sight of wetland plants, such as the leather fern, fragrant pandan, water canna and miniature flatsedge. These plants were chosen for their tolerance to waterlogged conditions, resistance to pest attacks, and nutrient-absorption capacity.
The wetland plants help improve water quality and also create a habitat for dragonflies, birds and fishes.
Madam Zaiton Musa, 49, a housewife who lives five minutes away from Pang Sua Pond by foot, finds the floating wetlands "beautiful and unique".
"I will definitely take my family to visit the pond, and I will go down there a lot," she said.
Visitors can "enjoy a leisurely walk over water and take in the panoramic scenery" at this "gem" of a pond, said Mr Tan Nguan Sen, PUB's chief sustainability officer.
Mrs Ong Lay Khim, 52, vice-principal of Teck Whye Primary School, one of the schools that adopted the pond, is fascinated by its "incredible biodiversity" and "pretty views". Her school is designing a maths trail that will include maths questions on the symmetry of leaf patterns and volume of pandan plants found there.
National water agency PUB's ABC Waters Programme was launched in 2006 to turn Singapore's water bodies and waterways into attractive community nodes.
