No, my friend, I like to think that I am capable of independent reasoning and was not “sold to his reasoning”.

Drainage design are based on historical rainfall data. We can be so kiasu and built huge ugly canals all over the island to cater for any eventuality that may only happen once in a thousand years. Or we can be pragmatic and strike a happy balance.

The Thomson/MacRitchie nursery flood area was a low lying area. The nurseries were on temporary land use. The long term solution is to raise the ground above known flood level. This can be done when the land is reverted to long term use. By the way, the canal has been rebuilt since. If you pass by the area, you will notice now the canal is higher than the nurseries. When it rains, they will still need to pump out the rain water.

We are certainly overpaying our Politicians and our Top Civil Servants..especially guys like Mr. Tan Yong Soon who bragged how efficient he is and this is happening to a Dept. closely associated with him…There must be many many more Tan Yong Soons.hiding in the bureaucratic woodwork.

We are not talking about once in 50 years flooding alone…there are many other issues….like lamp post falling on to a boy and nobody took responsibility for it….like inefficiencies in the public hospitals, like cramming citizens in trains and buses, like the cost of living overtaking the the purchasing ability of the lower income group….like losing billions of tax payers’ money in Temesek and GIC; like playing with words on OPublic Housing Susidy (Market Subsidy” which is NOT a subsidy.; like the patrol boat bristling with electronics worth 60million $ colliding with a merchant ship in clear weather no politician or Top Army Officer took responsibility (and the Chief of navy is now a Minister.). the list is incomplete..it goes on …..all these screwups add up to the frustration and anger at ground level.

Many are waiting for a chance to vote out the incumbents…Do away with the GRCS…and see how these coat tail politicians fare in a GE.

As you mentioned, since Singapore is so small to manage as compared to the China, yet, so many major and immediate problems left without resolved by those “million-dollar miw ministers”, the above mentioned bunch of stupid Chinese scholars still proclaim, unequivocally, that Singapore is the **model** for the Chinese people to emulate. Has the Chinese stupidity elevated to such an absurd level that “mimicking” a pig that make-up with a lip-stick to fly!!!!!! What a shameful bunch of idiots, peasants, country-bumpkins, imbeciles, morons and nerds from China? I, sincerely, hope that most of the Chinese people in China do not have similar mindsets and thinking like those Chinese scholars, mentioned above! Keep my fingers crossed!

“Failed to inspect and monitor food stalls. Failed to detect rat problems. Failed to eradicate the Malaria disease. Failed to contain the Dengue Mosquitoes. Failed to formulate for contingency plans for the flood-prone areas.”

It’s easy to hate a PAP minister – but remember that ordinary Singaporeans work in the Ministry of Environment. Are you sure they did not contain the above problems? Are you sure that people in the government are not doing their jobs?

The water has receded and no one got hurt. No water-borne diseases from 3-4-5 day flooding. On the whole, it is not a big deal, and most singaporeans would think the same.

I feel that the public angst tends to be ungrounded in rational fact and reason. I am very disappointed. There are many things that need to be changed in terms of how things are being run – but verbal attacks and polemics unfettered by reason and drenched in fallacies don’t help.

We’re too spoilt.

We need a two party system of government. It has to start NOW!
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Tell your neighbors and friends!

wah, long kang bo gau twa, simi bo cho.

hahaha

In any engineering design, whatever it may be, the first and foremost consideration must always be Safety. Without it, no design, no matter how good and cost-effective it is, should even pass the first level of approval.

For any of you familiar with the Toyota Production System, or Lean management System, or even the 5 ‘S’ system – you will see that Safety must always be considered first. Safety here refers to the protection of life from harm or death.

So, to be caught out by a freak event is acceptable when all areas of safety have been considered. It does not make sense for the minister to acknowledge that such an incident could happen, that he knew could happen – and then blame it on the freaky weather.

He has also shown himself to be a liar with such a comment – that such weather comes about once in fifty years. Has he already forgotten the freak flooding at Thomson Road / Macritchie Reservoir? It was only a year ago when the flower businesses located there were wiped out around this time of the year too.

So no, KopitiamApek. You are arguing the way you did because you have been sold to his reasoning that this is a freak incident that happens only once in fifty years. No, my friend, this is no freak, not when he knew that it was something waiting to happen.

Problem: Heavy rain cause serious flooding in Bt Timah.
Solution: Construct large canals.

In the US, a child at the age of six is asked to find out how many ways to cook an egg. He went home to ask his parents to help. Finally, he arrived at nine different ways to cook an egg. What does this tell us?

Even a child knows where to seek help. He got the answer because he is not shy to ask for help.

This problem of the unfreak ‘freak’ flood can be solved through a confluence of measures. The answer cannot be just one way – i.e. drainage = canals.

If the Freaky Minister is not shy to ask different professionals to help him solve the problem, he would have arrived at various ways of solving his freak flood problem, because different professionals will look at the same problem in different ways.

For example:

1. The Botanist may say, “Cut down some trees at Bt Timah area because there are too many trees there, and as a result heavier rainfalls are attracted to that area.”

2. The Engineer may say, “Construct more canals to divert the rain water.”

3. The Weatherman may say, “Provide an Early Warning System so that residents in that area can be alerted in time to take precautionary actions to limit the damages.”

4. The Mechanic may say, “Why not use high powered pumps to pump the rain water out to sea …”

5. The Town Planner may say, “In future, all buildings in flood prone areas should be built on stilts or on raised high-grounds.”

There you are, just five examples. Of course, there are some more ways to be added. And all the solutions can be amalgamated and implemented for full effect.

I just wonder what the Ministry of Environment has been doing for the last 30 years?

Failed to inspect and monitor food stalls. Failed to detect rat problems. Failed to eradicate the Malaria disease. Failed to contain the Dengue Mosquitoes. Failed to formulate for contingency plans for the flood-prone areas.

BUT succeeded in giving the Permanent Secretary a continuous stretch of five weeks leave to attend a French Cooking Course at Cordon Bleu so that he could publicly belittle all the other Perm Secs for being unable to take such a long period of leave.

“Taking five weeks’ leave from work is not as difficult as one thinks. Most times, when you are at the top, you think you are indispensable. But if you are a good leader who has built up a good team, it is possible to go away for five weeks or even longer.” – Tan Yong Soon.

Time to reomove all these merceneries and greedy good for nothing politicians in the next GE

A quick check at the MOF website indicated that $180M and $190M was earmarked for drainage works in FY2008 and FY2009 respectively.
http://www.mof.gov.sg/budget_2008/ex…view/mewr.html $180million in FY2008
http://www.mof.gov.sg/budget_2009/ex…view/mewr.html $190million in FY2009

Why is PUB underspending relative to the scope of the problem? It is disappointing to hear the minister regurgitate the same lame excuse in recent years. Flooding occurs due to inadequate drainage. Period. It is solved by proper capacity planning and engineering. It is not difficult to get right, really!