North Region · planning area

Central Water Catchment

The forested heart of Singapore, with four reservoirs, the Central Catchment Nature Reserve and the Mandai wildlife parks, and no recorded residents.

What the Central Water Catchment is

The Central Water Catchment is a North Region planning area of 37.16 square kilometres in the middle of the island. It touches nine other planning areas, from Bukit Timah and Novena in the south to Mandai and Yishun in the north, and it is mostly forest and reservoir. SingStat prints a dash for its June 2026 resident count, meaning nil or negligible.

Reservoirs and nature

NParks lists six park points inside the boundary: MacRitchie Reservoir Park, Lower Peirce Reservoir Park, Upper Peirce Reservoir Park, Upper Seletar Reservoir Park, Chestnut Nature Park and the Central Catchment Nature Reserve itself. The reservoirs are part of PUB's water supply system, and the forest around them is protected as a nature reserve. For residents of the surrounding towns, the trails here are the island's largest stretch of forest within easy reach.

Wildlife parks

The Singapore Zoo, Night Safari and Bird Paradise, which most people think of as "Mandai", are inside this planning area: their OneMap locations fall within its boundary. The Mandai planning area itself is the strip of private housing to the north.

Rail and facilities

LTA's exit data shows no rail station inside the boundary, and the agencies' lists show no MOE school, hawker centre, polyclinic, CHAS clinic or community club. Visitors reach the parks and trails from stations and bus routes in neighbouring areas, such as Caldecott and Upper Thomson on the Thomson-East Coast Line and Springleaf at the Yishun end.

Living beside the catchment

Several planning areas with homes border the catchment, among them Bukit Timah, Bukit Panjang and Ang Mo Kio, which have full guides, and Bishan, Toa Payoh, Novena, Yishun and Mandai, which have area profiles.

Nearby planning areas

Next to Central Water Catchment on URA's map: Bukit Timah (full guide), Novena, Ang Mo Kio (full guide), Mandai, Toa Payoh, Yishun, Bukit Panjang (full guide), Sungei Kadut, Bishan.

Every planning area has a page on our neighbourhoods index.

Sources

  1. URA, Master Plan 2025 Planning Area Boundary (No Sea), data.gov.sg (updated 27 February 2026)
  2. LTA, MRT Station Exit (GEOJSON), data.gov.sg (updated 18 October 2026)
  3. NParks, Parks, data.gov.sg (updated 14 November 2026)
  4. SingStat, Resident Population by Planning Area/Subzone, Age Group and Type of Dwelling, June 2026 (released 25 September 2026), singstat.gov.sg
  5. SLA, OneMap search (venue addresses and locations)
  6. NParks, park and nature reserve pages (Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Pulau Ubin, Central Catchment Nature Reserve), nparks.gov.sg
  7. PUB, Singapore's reservoirs (central and western catchment reservoirs), pub.gov.sg

Facts checked on 15 November 2026. See our editorial policy.

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