About 25 shops affected by underground pipe leak in Yishun

About 25 shops were affected by the early morning burst water pipe near block 101 Yishun Avenue 5.

MP for Nee Soon GRC, and Coordinating Minister for National Security, K Shanmugam, spoke to the press on May 10 after visiting the affected area.

PUB quickly sorted out the issue

Shanmugam said that around 1am on May 10, a PUB water pipe burst, flooding the nearby shops at Block 101.

He said that the PUB took action as soon as they were told, and they were joined by the town council, who arrived at around 2am.

The PUB quickly “sorted out the issue”, but the cleaning has taken some time, due to the “substantive amount of water that had come out”.

Helping shopkeepers

Shanmugam said that he had spoken to some of the shopkeepers and would be helping them.

Some shops, Shanmugam said, were more affected than others.

He cited examples of a neighbourhood furniture shop that was worried that some of their sale items had gotten muddy and were probably unusable, and a hardware shop that was worried about rust.

Shanmugam said that there would be “issues of compensation” and that the town council would work with the affected shops and help them.

Notification in parallel

Shanmugam also addressed comments by shop owners that they could have been notified earlier by PUB about the burst pipes.

Shanmugam acknowledged, saying it was a “fair concern”, but also noted that PUB’s primary concern was to ensure that they identify the source of the issue, and stop the flow of water.

"We need to see how these things can happen in parallel, so that the affected stakeholders, in this case, the shopkeepers, will know fairly in real time something that's been happening. We are working closely with them."

Repairs ongoing

A post by PUB said that the leak had occurred on an underground water pipe near the junction of Block 101 Yishun Avenue 5 and Sembawang Road at around 1am, that had caused water to overflow into the surrounding areas.

A PUB service crew responded, isolating the leak.

Repairs are ongoing and there is no disruption to the water supply for homes and businesses in the area.

Nee Soon Town Council and the PUB are working together to carry out clean-up works, and PUB is investigating the cause of the pipe leak.