Party Vibe

presumably you mean the Tees rather than the otters – in modern Singapore if those otters were not sufficiently clean the Fire Brigade and Navy would fish them the whole lot out with nets; they would be given to some auntie who would bathe them in the same way they would the small “handbag dogs” (also popular there) and then return them to put them back into the river. :laugh_at:

They even herd the stray cats into “cat zones” which usually are the part of the HDB housing block on the ground floor above the “void deck” (public space below the block) where the seniors prefer to live (so they don’t need to deal with lifts and stairwells)

I live quite near the Orwell but thankfully not too near; I usually avoid cycling along the adjacent roads as they only lead to half empty villages and the traffic is too dangerous for when you have to hold your nose due to the pong..

This is a recent guide to navigation of the Port of Ipswich – there is indeed a place called Sewer Jetty (not sure why you would want to build a jetty there of all places) and where I was cycling was completely the other side of the river!

Sometimes town is equally bad when the drains are stopped up with fat; A few years ago I once saw an entire Singapore family (especially the older folk still often dress like British people did from 1950s to 1970s, distinguishing them from Fillipinos or Mainland Chinese) who were visiting Ipswich wrinkling their noses and looking disgusted at the level of pollution and most likely wishing they had gone to Germany (where they seem to take more interest in keeping waterways clean – see below)

Although this chart (which is an overlay on an Ordnance Survey map) looks like it belongs in the 1970s consider the recent discussion over mapping, GIS systems and datums – the part of the channel suitable for larger shipping is only 100m wide so I wouldn’t be surprised if the Harbourmaster didn’t want to take any changes with “those new fangled GIS systems” :laugh_at:

Its not the easiest thing to read; TBH I’m impressed that all the mostly foreign crews of large vessels bring all sorts of cargo back and forth 24/7 with very few incidents…

BTW the cleanup of the Singapore river started in the 1970s – curiously the most detailed info about this is in German (this is an extract of it; there is a lot more)

In diesem Jahr brachte Lee Kuan Yew, der damalige Premierminister von Singapur, einen ehrgeizigen Plan unter der Überschrift „The Clean-up of the Singapore River and Kallang Basin“ voran, der die Säuberung der beiden Hauptgewässer zum Ziel hatte und innerhalb von zehn Jahren in dem Fluss das Fischen wieder ermöglichen sollte.

(The Prime Minister ordered all the polluting industries / settlements removed from the riverside by 1987; so that fish would be able to thrive by then. According to other records they did appear to achieve this). Lee Kuan Yew was the PM of Singapore when my Dad was still in 6th form and was still in power until the 2000s; untill he got too unwell and passed away (at his funeral his soul was piped into the afterlife by a lone piper!). SG subsequently had one of the most free and trustworthy elections in SE Asia, and elected Lee Hsien Loong (who is this chaps eldest son) :laugh_at:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_River#Verschmutzung_und_Reinigung