New and improved amenities to enhance liveability for Pulau Ubin's community

-   Species recovery and habitat enhancement efforts continue to show signs of success for birds on Pulau Ubin

The National Parks Board (NParks) announced today new and improved amenities, such as personal alert buttons for elderly villagers, more firefighting infrastructure and an upgraded micro-grid at Ubin Day. These enhancements help to address the needs of Pulau Ubin’s community and raise the villagers’ quality of life. NParks has also successfully recorded 21 nesting occurrences of the Blue-throated Bee-eater and the first breeding record of the Lesser Whistling Duck at Pulau Ubin, signaling that species recovery and habitat enhancement efforts can benefit birdlife on the island. These records underscore the importance of restoring and enhancing the diverse habitats of Pulau Ubin as well as implementing species recovery plans to ensure that it remains a haven for birds and one of Singapore’s most ecologically important sites in our City in Nature. Together, these efforts will help to preserve the Ubin way of life, as well as its rich natural and cultural heritage.

To celebrate Ubin Day, Guest-of-Honour Minister for Culture, Community and Youth & Second Minister for Law Edwin Tong, who was hosted by Minister for National Development & Minister-in-Charge of Social Services Integration Desmond Lee, planted 50 trees today together with Friends of Ubin Network (FUN) and members of the community, as part of the OneMillionTrees movement.

New and improved amenities at Pulau Ubin

The Community Liaison Team (CLT), a group of NParks staff dedicated to support and address the needs of villagers, piloted a project with the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) to install personal alert buttons within the houses of elderly villagers who live alone. This will make it easier for the elderly to call for assistance during emergency situations, thus reducing the time needed for help to arrive.

As the island’s central managing agency, NParks is also installing fire hydrants and hose reels at the Main Village, Kampong Sungei Durian and Ubin Living Lab to strengthen the island’s fire management response. The aim is to provide both Community First Responders and firefighters with improved firefighting infrastructure, to allow for a continuous and controllable supply of water, as well as better coverage of buildings. These will be ready by 2023 and will complement the existing fire management response.

The Pulau Ubin Micro-Grid will also be improved with the installation of a Solar Green Roof connected to an advanced energy storage system, and extended to Kampong Sungei Durian to provide reliable and sustainable electricity supply to more users on the island, as requested by the villagers. This follows a successful test-bed launched in 2013 by Energy Market Authority where over 30 end-users benefited from the micro-grid. The improved micro-grid will use cleaner energy to meet the demand for electricity while reducing diesel usage, thus contributing to environmental sustainability efforts.

Pulau Ubin’s birds and biodiversity conservation efforts

As part of NParks’ Nature Conservation Masterplan, NParks, together with FUN members and the community, have been implementing species recovery and habitat enhancement projects to conserve and enhance the island’s biodiversity. This included providing nesting mounds for the Blue-throated Bee-eater, one of the species under NParks’ Species Recovery Programme, and enhancing Pekan Quarry with floating wetlands to provide more habitats for biodiversity, including birds such as herons, kingfishers and ducks. Combined with reforestation efforts under the OneMillionTrees movement, these efforts help to strengthen the ecological resilience of Pulau Ubin’s habitats, thereby safeguarding their rich natural heritage and biodiversity. Through regular monitoring and surveys, we have observed that Pulau Ubin continues to support a diverse and unique biodiversity, particularly for rare fauna and birds. This includes increased sightings of several rare species of birds such as the Black-winged Flycatcher Shrike, Lesser Green Leafbird, Red Knot, Ruby-cheeked Sunbird and Scarlet-breasted Flowerpecker since April this year.

Ubin Day 2022

Ubin Day is a culmination of Pesta Ubin, a festival organised by NParks, FUN members and the community. First held in 2002, this is the eleventh time Ubin Day is being organised to celebrate the different facets of the island.

This year’s Pesta Ubin and Ubin Day comes back with 21 activities, the most number of activities since the pandemic. During the three-week-long festival in June this year, members of public could learn more about Pulau Ubin’s rich biodiversity and natural history through guided walks, talks and more. For more information on Pesta Ubin, please visit https://pestaubin2022.blogspot.com/

- End -