Palm | Kelapa Sawit

Bad weather, snags push launch date back from late 2012 to end of January
Grace Chua Straits Times 12 Dec 12

ONCE an illegal farm, it is now a sprawling patch of bare earth, with puddles of water slicked with anti-mosquito chemicals doused by pest control workers.

The area in Clementi has been earmarked to become an official community garden, with plans including paved paths, solar lighting and a water supply.

But the date for its completion has been pushed back from late this year until the end of January after hitting a series of snags.

The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) previously managed the state land and it is now leased to the Bukit Timah Citizens' Consultative Committee.

An SLA spokesman said illegal structures had to be dismantled and removed, the land had to be cleared, ponds had to be filled and the ground had to be levelled before the handover.

There is also a major active gas pipe running under the stretch of land, so "the contractor was instructed to take special care in carrying out their works. In addition, the contractor was told to preserve as much of the greenery as possible," the spokesman said.

"The site preparation works were further aggravated by the rainy season, resulting in an unforeseen delay of six weeks from the original target date (for the site preparation) of end-August 2012."

The 1,800 sq m plot between Sungei Ulu Pandan and the former Malayan Railway track, near Clementi avenues 4 and 6, used to be farmed illegally by residents, mostly elderly.

Once, labourers and retirees gathered to chit-chat near a small shrine they had built there.

Other farmers had installed ponds and an outhouse, and grew bananas, sweet potatoes and other vegetables and fruit.

In March, nearby residents complained of smoke from burning leaves.

Bukit Timah Member of Parliament Sim Ann, who oversees the area, stepped in and helped develop the plan for the official community garden, and the farmers moved out in June.

The 18 farmers who registered to garden on smaller plots at the redeveloped site will be able to do so for $60 a year.

Mr Lester Yeong, 35, whose father is one of those registered, said he reckoned the new garden, smaller than the old farmland, would be done by late January.

But around the edges of the empty patch, beyond the official community garden site, there are signs of planting coming back: cramped rows of sweet potato leaves and long beans, squat banana trees jostling for space with papaya trees.

"I thought I might as well clear the long grass," said Madam Siow Siew Eng in Mandarin. She is 72 and sells her all-organic harvest to residents for spare cash.

"Doing this here, it makes me very happy."