The watergate sytem of the river Melaka

Later at night we went to the jetty of the river Melaka right in the middle of its city...

Actually we came here to take the famous Melaka river cruise. However we arrived a bit too late and missed the last ride which if I'm not mistaken was at 11 pm...

So I decided to do something else. I went to check how the river cruise works, particular how they managed to keep the water at optimal level making it navigable at all times impervious to the usual workings of high and low tide...

First, a quick education about the Melaka river. Let it be known that the half a kilometre stretch or so leading out to the sea you see nowadays are all part of reclaimed land. That means the estuary used to lie half a kilometre or so inland compared to the estuary you can see in this picture with a bridge cum highway crossing.

OK. I consciously took a picture from this angle to show something. You see, following the land-reclamation and creation of the Melaka river cruise, the flow of the river is broken into two. The one on the left lead to a dead end close to the original estuary, the one to the right lead to the gateway system where the water level is controlled...

This is the watergate system which controls the water level. I understand it is made based on the system employed in London especially the canals passing through Camden...




And here's a look back towards the jetty where I took the first picture. The jetty should lie near the original estuary as could be seen 20 years ago.