New bus stop built next to Punggol mangroves

There is a narrow sliver of natural mangroves at Punggol near Punggol Jetty and Coney Island.

Thanks to an alert from a nature lover, I had a closer look at a new bus stop that was built right next to the mangroves.


A layer of brown sacking had been placed around the bus stop.

The vegetation at the edge of the mangrove area was very poorly hacked.

I couldn't really see deeper into the mangroves. But it looks like the damage was limited to the area near the road. However, it appears the mangroves are still coated with orange clay.

This is what the area looked like in Jan 2016.

This is when I noticed a layer of bright orange clay coated the area from a nearby construction site.

The mangroves grow along the waterway marked with the yellow line. I noticed a bright orange clay trail in the drain to the west (red line) of Punggol Road. While the water in the drain to the east (blue line) was normal, no bright orange clay trail.

In Aug 2015, I was already worried that plans for the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) may affect the Punggol mangroves.

Graphic from the Straits Times 24 Aug 2015

Overlaying the graphic on Google Earth, it appears there will be new roads (blue). The northern road appears to cut close to a tiny sliver of wild mangroves there (yellow dot). I last visited this mangrove patch in Feb 2011.

We lose our natural mangroves and ecosystems by inches. As they degrade with impacts from developments nearby, it becomes easier to write them off as being in too poor a state to conserve. Sigh.