DIY 200,000 Litre Pond

[LittleBurger]

From my conversation with Shannon, apparently his neighbor filed a complain against him and this project have to be dropped for the time being.

Is the neighbour an ex radio dj? Hahaha....

[Bulldozer]

Any alterations have to seek BCA Approval.

If I am the neighbour, I will raise concern too immediately.

It involves Soil Movement etc...

UNless the Authority has granted approval.

All the best ... I do hope eventually it will be a success.

[tropic]

It's not a small project. I do sure hope he has the necessary applications done before embarking on this.. If not he has few heads to ans to. hope all goes well for the project.

[Ahhyi]

Any updates on this "tank"?

[Jameshong]

Any update? Hope to see the project can be continue....

[Copperband]

i dont see this as any differnt from.building a swimming pool..... hmm..

hope this continues

[Firestarter]

If you notice in one of the pictures that his house is on an elevated height from his neighbour, perhaps that is the concern. If both neighbours are on the same elevation then I think it would not be much of an issue?

[Bulldozer]

i dont see this as any differnt from.building a swimming pool..... hmm..

hope this continues

Nothing Diff ... that's why need some form of Submission and CLearance.

Some pools even has to have certain wall height as requirement for water splash reasons.

Some landed cannot build pools too. Many parameters involved just like our tank.

[Bulldozer]

If you notice in one of the pictures that his house is on an elevated height from his neighbour, perhaps that is the concern. If both neighbours are on the same elevation then I think it would not be much of an issue?

The Walls looks newly erected .... Hmmmm .....

[Firestarter]

If the wall were to collaspe, its like a dam bursting and flowing into his neighbours premises.

[qingwen]

omg i thought you posted wrongly when you mentioned 200,000 Litre. WOW. impressible!

[mug888]

You are brave to build this pond.

[qingwen]

any updates bro? would love to go snorkeling!

[zonerx]

any update?

[l3lackKaho]

any update?

[qingwen]

time to go snorkelling in singapore~

[les71]

SUPER POWER,IMPRESSIVE.....

[Jameshong]

time to go snorkelling in singapore~

May be no more chances liao..

[xnsdvd]

Hey Guys! You have no idea how heartwarming it is to read all your posts. But unfortunately, the pond had to be demolished and filled in. So I guess I owe you all a story about what happened at 35 Jalan Kuang and a little bit of good news at the end of it.

What Happened?!

Like Gouldian said, one of my neighbours complained. The government got involved, the landlord got scared and I got caught in the middle of the whole mess. But it's the details that make this story so unbelievably stupid;

Neighbours

You see, the neighbour on my right, that you can see in the photos, wasn't the one the complained. It wasn't the neighbour across the road or the one directly behind me. It wasn't even the one on my left. They were all fish people themselves and were quite excited about the pond. They'd drop by to sit around and chat about what was going in, how I'd handle the filtration and when they could go snorkeling or spearfishing. So no, it definitely wasn't those fine people or their lovely families.

It was the !@#$%^ing &^#@ one house down on my left. The guy that couldn't even see the pond from the 3rd floor of his house. And this wasn't the first time he'd done something like that. A year ago he actually demanded my pregnant wife cut the grass in my garden. And he called the police because we had a barbecue and he didn't like the smoke. Basically a crazy person. But it gets worse...

Government

I thought I was quite safe, seeing as how I'd cleared construction with the landlord, the property agent and URA. I documented almost everything as well in case something like this should happen. Unfortunately, the good people at URA decided to send some mental hospital escapee, lets call him "Low", to inspect my pond. I quickly gave him a copy of the correspondence and a printout of URA's own website that proved I didn't require approval to construct a pond. I also explained that BCA had come down the week before and confirmed that I wasn't doing anything illegal. He took the documents and said,

"Yah... but this kind of thing is verbal only, you never got written permission. And how I know this email is real? Anyway your pond is too big!"

Fighting the urge to slap him with a lionfish(poor fish might get hurt), I pointed out the email where the approving officer commented that the pond was "Rather big" and I asked her to clarify what "Rather big" was, because I was quite happy to make it "Rather normal" but she eventually said it was ok and we could proceed. Low just stared blankly at me, perhaps remembering it was lunch time back in woodbridge, and repeated,

"Yah.. but how I know it's real? Anyway it's too big! It's almost commercial!"

I desperately told myself that stabbing him with rabbit fish wouldn't be fair to the fish and calmly said,

"I don't think you understand the meaning of that word... can't you just call your approving officer and get her to confirm?"

That's when Low(I'm starting to think it describes his IQ), told me she was on leave and there was no way to verify until she got back 2 weeks later. This is when things get REALLY crazy.

The Landlord

My landlord, after receiving a URA letter about an illegal commercial operation in his garden, came to the conclusion that all the correspondence between himself, URA and me were fake! Fake! Because, as he explained,

"If real one den how come the gobermen come after me? Singapo gobermen not so stupid one! I don care! You fill up the pond and make good my garden!".

At this point I wanted to swallow a blue ring octopus, but it wouldn't have been fair to the little cephalopod.

So anyway, in the end, URA said it was legal to have the pond, my dogs left the neighbour some presents, but the landlord decided I was too much trouble and almost doubled my rent since we were in the middle of renewing the contract during the whole fiasco. So having no choice, I had to demolish the pond, fill it up and move out. I was quite lucky that my HDB was finally ready during that period as well.

The End.

[surreal1228]

Respect. <br />One day it will come true bro.

[xnsdvd]

So here's the good news I promised:

And this one is being built in the west side! Drop by Neo Tiew Lane 1 for a snorkel in a few months guys!

[Zee123]

A blessing in disguise I suppose. Now you have a much bigger "pond" to enjoy!

[erikokelf]

There are simply too many "funny" characters around. Sad to see that your initial project comes to a haul, but it's wait for your next one to create history in Singapore

[Gouldian]

So here's the good news I promised:

And this one is being built in the west side! Drop by Neo Tiew Lane 1 for a snorkel in a few months guys!

"Never Say Die" attitude!

[Guest]

So here's the good news I promised:

And this one is being built in the west side! Drop by Neo Tiew Lane 1 for a snorkel in a few months guys!

Awesome. Please invite us over for opening k ?