- Kampong Buangkok
(Still under construction)
Kampong Buangkok is the last surviving kampong (village) in mainland
Singapore . It is located in the north eastern region at LorongBuangkok inHougang . It is surrounded by a condominium, a Housing Board estate and rows of bungalows. Beside the kampong runs a wide canal that is linked to Sungei Punggol, which drains into the eastern Straits of Johor.Etymology
Kampong Buangkok is also known as 'Selak Kain' in Malay, which means 'hitching up one's sarong (skirt)'. It was named as such as the place was prone to flooding and people needed to hitch up their sarong to walk through the flood waters.
History
The Land
The land was acquired in 1957 and evolved into a kampong. In the 1960's, it housed about 40 families. The land area used to be 21460m². Residents used to pay rental of $2-$3 then. Currently it houses 28 families (18 Chinese and 10 Malay). They pay about $13 in rent. The land area has also shrunken in size to 12248.1m²
The Owners
The land was bought by Mr Sng Teo Kim. At the point of purchase, there were already 4 to 6 houses built on the land. He set up home in the village with his family. He started renting out land to people to build homes. The land was handed down to his children, one of whom is Ms Sng Mui Hong. She continues to live in the village with her nieces. Her 3 other siblings, who are the co-owners, have all married and moved out of the village.
Floods
In the past, the kampong was constantly hit by floods. When heavy rains coincided with high tides, flash floods resulted in low lying areas. The water level in drains and canals became so high that the water could not be drained off quickly enough, causing floods to occur. In 1970, a canal was built at Gerald Dr in an attempt to minimise or absolve the floods. However, it proved to be insufficient in the face of mighty floods.Currently, the area is still affected by floods, the most recent being in 2006. A $10 million plan to improve the drainage system and to raise the ground level was aborted as it was said to be a cost ineffective project for just 28 families.
Media and Awareness
The kampong served as the main subject of interest in the documentary Selak Kain "The Last Kampong". The film received national air-time on free-to-air television channel Arts Central. The documentary focused on the residents' struggles to maintain their way of life in the kampong in the 21st century. The documentary juxtaposes modernities and nostalgic kampong life to bring out the dualities of living in a kampong in a cosmopolitan city like Singapore and how both young and old residents adapt to the changes both within, and without.
It represented Ngee Ann Polytechnic in the 2006 Project Pilot Showcase and also represented Singapore in India's Consortium for Educational Communication's Student Documentary Category.
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