Clean fresh water was a pressing need in the 1850s, and in 1857, a philanthropist named Tan Kim Seng donated $13,000 to the Municipality to bring fresh water to the town from Bukit Timah. Singapore’s first reservoir was built at Thomson Road in 1862, and through the remaining years of the 19th century, it was the island’s only regular source of fresh water. The years from 1874 to 1878 witnessed the rapid expansion of the water supply system in Singapore. Extension work here began in 1891 under the supervision of James MacRitchie, and the reservoir was officially commissioned in 1894, after which it was renamed MacRitchie Reservoir. This was one of the places that the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York visited during their two-day stay in Singapore in April 1901.
