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Peirce Reservoir

Peirce Reservoir, located at the lower portion of Kallang Valley, was commissioned in 1912. It was originally known as the Kallang River Reservoir and was renamed Peirce Reservoir in 1922 after Robert Peirce, the Municipal Engineer from 1901 to 1916. The reservoir was again renamed Lower Pierce Reservoir in 1975 after the construction of the new Upper Peirce Reservoir. It was Singapore's second and largest impounding reservoir. The maximum capacity of Pierce Reservoir is 757 million gallons.

Description
The Kallang River Reservoir and filter-beds at Woodleigh was officially opened on 26 March 1912 by his Excellency Sir Arthur Young. This waterwork at Kallang and Woodleigh took ten years to construct before it provided Singapore town with a daily supply of nine million gallons of water.

In the late 1960s, increasing demand of water led the Public Utilities Board to examine the feasibility of increasing the capacity of Peirce Reservoir. Thus a higher dam was constructed upstream of the existing dam in 1970. This led to the implementation of Upper Peirce Scheme in 1971 and Binnie & Partners (Singapore) were appointed as consultants. The construction work for the new Upper Peirce Reservoir started in May 1972 and was completed in 1975.

The new Upper Peirce Reservoir was built at a total cost of $55 million. It has a storage capacity of up to 27.8 million cu m of water over 304 ha of water surface and is the largest impounding reservoir in Singapore. The water from the Upper Peirce reservoir is treated at the Chestnut Avenue Treatment Works, which initially has the capability of treating 273,000 cu m of water per day with provisions for future extension to 550,000 cu m per day.

Upper Peirce Reservoir was officially declared open by the then Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew on 27 February 1977.

Variant Names
Peirce Reservoir is sometimes misspelt Pierce Reservoir.



Author
Zubaidah Mohamed 



References
Public Utilities Board. (1977). Souvenir brochure to commemorate the official opening of the Upper Peirce Reservoir. Singapore: Author.
(Call no.: RSING 628.13095957 PUB)

Singapore Water Department. (1973). How Singapore gets its water supply. Singapore: Author.
(Call no.: RSING 628.1095957 SIN)

Mr Lee to open Spores largest impounding reservoir today. (1977, February 27). The Sunday Times, p. 18.

Singapores Water: Nine million gallons a day guaranteed. (1912, March 27). The Straits Times, pp. 7-8.

Heritage Hub. (n.d.). Lower Peirce Reservoir. Retrieved December 17, 2002, from
www.heritagehub.com.sg/visit%20sites/marked%20historic/HS-PierceReservoir/HS-PierceReservoir-M.htm

Heritage Hub. (n.d.). Lower Peirce Reservoir, Water supply in Singapore...It became known as Lower Peirce. Retrieved December 17, 2002, from www.heritagehub.com.sg/visit%20sites/marked%20historic/HS-PierceReservoir/HS-PierceReservoir-1.htm


Further Readings
Public Utilities Board. (1988). Singapore's Water Supply (pp. 2, 4). Singapore: Author.
(Call no.: RSING 628.1095957 SIN) 

The information in this article is valid as at 2002 and correct as far as we can ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.

Subject
Nature>>Nature Conservation>>Reservoirs
Reservoirs--Singapore
Historic buildings--Singapore
Science and technology>>Engineering>>Hydraulic engineering



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